Rebirth of the Uchiha
by WonderfulMadness
Summary: Itachi never killed the children of the Uchiha clan, leaving Sasuke as the head of a broken clan. Can he rise to the challenge and return the Uchiha to greatness? Maybe with a little help from a certain prankster... if nothing else, they'll definitely have some surprises. Meanwhile, Itachi decides that he needs to prepare himself for whatever plans his 'leader' has in store...
1. Prologue

So, this is me back, trying to get used to writing and such. Also, my first foray into Naruto fanfiction. Original credit for the plot comes from Laryna6's wonderfully cracky "Uchibi Sasuke". I'll be taking the story in a more serious direction, but I'll try to keep it pretty lighthearted for the most part.

Anyway, on we go!

"You can awaken these same eyes as me. But there is a toll that must first be paid. You must kill the person most important to you." Red eyes with a shuriken design stared into black, terrified ones.

"Come to me then, when you have unlocked these eyes. Show me the limits of your capacity." Tears fell freely from dark eyes as the speaker walked away, leaving nothing behind in the street but a young boy, grieving for his family.

"Uwaah!" Sasuke flinched at the noise. _That's Kenji-san's house..._ he thought as he pushed himself to his feet. Pushing open the front door and crossing the hall, he found himself in a nursery, staring at the bawling infant in front of him. _A baby?_

Awkwardly picking the child out of the crib, Sasuke sat, cross-legged, trying to hold on to her. Rocking her slowly like he'd seen mothers do around Konoha, he sat for some time as her sobs grew quieter as she fell back to sleep. He never even noticed the ANBU entering the house until a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Sasuke, correct? I need you to come with me..." came the voice as the dog-masked ninja bent down to his level."... and who's this?" he asked, gesturing to the sleeping baby.

"...Megumi. Her name is Megumi." muttered Sasuke hoarsely, still blankly staring at her.

"Okay, Sasuke, why don't you give Megumi-chan to me and I.."

The boy flinched and held the girl tighter to his chest. "...no problem. You just hold on to her for now. I need you to come with me. Hokage-sama needs to talk to you..."

"Sasuke, are you certain that it was Itachi who did this?" asked the Hokage's advisor - the woman, Sasuke had never learnt their names - for at least the third time.

"...yes. It was Itachi. Just like it was Itachi the last time you asked." he hissed through gritted teeth, no longer giving a damn about respecting her.

"Why you little-"

"Koharu!" barked the Hokage from behind the desk. "That's enough. This is a tragedy for all Konoha, losing so many in a single night. Inu, take the children to ANBU headquarters for now, until we can find someone to take them in." The dog-masked ninja bowed deeply and began steering Sasuke from the room.

"H-Hokage-sama," interjected the boy. "Please... don't split us up. I-I need..." he trailed off, unsure of how to finish his sentence.

"I know, my boy. Please, follow Inu-san and try to get some rest." As the boy was led out and the door closed behind him, he could have sworn he heard the Hokage whisper "I'm so sorry." He shook his head and focused on Megumi.

That morning, the Uchiha compound had dozens, maybe even a couple hundred residents. Now there were ten, all of them younger than Sasuke. He blinked back the tears as much as he could. He had to be strong. He was, technically, the most senior member of the clan. It was his responsibility to protect them. Staring at the black-haired little girl in his arms, Sasuke made a promise. He would become the strongest ninja in the world, so that as long as he was alive, nobody would come after his family again. He would get strong enough to kill That Man, and anyone else who wanted to hurt them.

In another world, he would become an avenger. In this world, Uchiha Sasuke became a guardian.

So, love it? Hate it? let me know


	2. A Start

So, on something of a roll from last chapter. Really going to try and keep up with this story. Also, _for some reason_, this site keeps removing my formatting and scene breaks will henceforth be shown as SCENE BREAK until I get that sorted out. This chapter takes place a couple years after the prologue - Sasuke is now 9, ANBU have been assigned towatch the kids, make sure the new clan head isn't going insane from pressure, that sort of thing.

If anyone wants it, I have names assigned to all the Uchiha kids. I'l probably leave off that for a couple chapters though.

TO THE STORY!

Sasuke calmly moved all the paperwork to one side of the desk - his father's, the seat of a clan head - and began the standard process. Strike head firmly against desk until stupid things are no longer quite so irritating.

THUD - THUD - THU - "Uchiha-san? Are you feeling okay?" The voice is the latest ANBU to be assigned to the clan, after Sasuke told the Hokage that he was not going to break his family up any more than it already was. The compromise was simple, Sasuke took the position of 'clan head', more or less a figurehead, and ANBU squads would be posted to watch over the compound. The old man had to have known about the horrors that came with the title.

Sarutobi sighed contentedly as he worked his way through a final stack of paperwork. If he'd only known how much Sasuke was willing to do for the village, he'd have declared him the fifth Hokage at birth and washed his hands of the whole mess.

"I'm just frustrated, Neko-san. I mean, look at all these applications for me to join the CRA. Do none of these people realise I'm nine?" sighed the boy, glaring at the paper and debating whether or not to fireball the whole stack.

"Don't even think about it." warned the ANBU member sitting across from him. "We're in a wooden building, remember?" As Sasuke moved to resume his 'paperwork process', the masked ninja stood up and walked over to him.

"Come on, Uchiha-san." Sasuke stared at him, unsure of what the statement meant or could mean or - great, the damned forms even had him thinking in legalistic doublespeak. Idly, Sasuke wondered where he picked up the word doublespeak. Or legalistic, that was a strange one. Oh, right, elite ninja trying to get his attention.

"-iha-san? Are you listening to me?" Sasuke shook some of the madness out of his head before answering. "Apologies, Neko-san. I'm just-" "Exhausted? Stressed? Beginning to hallucinate? Frankly, Uchiha-san, I think you need a break."

"I can't afford to take a break, Neko-san. Between the council, clan duties and trying not to flunk out of the academy..." Sasuke trailed off, doing some quick mental arithmetic. "I'm missing the academy right now, aren't I? Kami _damn it!_" he growled, furious with himself. How was he supposed to fight That Man if he couldn't even pass the academy? A sudden jolt cut off his mental tirade. He felt a pair of arms supporting him as he looked down at a needle in his arm. He was reeally comfy all of a sudden... sleepy times...

Tenzo shook his head sadly. The kid was working himself to an early grave. Maybe the Hokage would be willing to take back some paperwork... probably not. Oh well, only a few more years until the Uchiha assets would be fully available. Surely someone could be hired to deal with some of the workload. Hopefully a lot of someones.

SCENE BREAK

Uchiha Rei sighed as the final bell rang to signal the end of the school day. Another day where Sasuke-Niisan was stuck doing clan stuff at home. That meant one of the weird, creepy masked guys was going to bring them home. Niisan said they were there to protect them, but Rei remembered how That Man had had a creepy mask of his own. A ferret, appropriately enough. Or was that a weasel? She could never tell those two apart.

"Uchiha-san? ANBU Boar is here to collect you." came the voice of Mizuki-sensei. Rei blinked as she stared at him. He was plenty weird even without a mask.

"Okay, Mizuki-sensei. I'll meet him out front in a minute." Rei sighed. She knew Niisan was worried about them, but he was so overprotective. Nobody was stupid enough to mess with an Uchiha in broad daylight. She knew it was pointless, though. It wasn't like she could just sneak out and go play with the kids her age in the park with an ANBU looking for her...

Of course, if an elite ninja couldn't catch an academy student gone awol, then Niisan would be mad at him instead of her. If she got caught, then no harm, no foul. Just practicing her ninja skills...

Boar smirked behind his mask. First ANBU assignments were the stuff of horror stories among the regular forces. Frankly, from that one story about ANBU Peacock, the pink thong and the Mist Swordsman, he'd nearly dropped out before his first week was up. But he'd had nothing to worry about, this was just babysitting. Babysitting a kid, at that. He walked into the classroom to find it... empty. Huh.

Okay, maybe the bathroom. _Knock, knock. _No response. Oh, dear. This was not good. Very much not good. Okay, another bathroom. Nothing. Bad, bad, so bad. Back to classroom! Store cupboards, empty. Desks, empty. Potted plants - no. Window, open. Wait, **window open**?

Oh shit.

SCENE BREAK

Rei smiled as she looked around at all the kids her own age - who weren't her cousins - playing together. Walking over to some of the civilian children from her class, she introduced herself. It had been so easy to get away from her bodyguard. Too easy. He was probably hiding somewhere nearby, to let her think she was awesome. What kind of elite couldn't track an academy student?

Boar sneezed mid-jump, losing his balance and landing in a dumpster in an alley. _"Oh Kami, it's all over my mask..."_

A snide laugh broke Rei out of her stupor. "Why would an elite Uchiha want to play with lowly civilians like us?" sneered one of the girls, Izumi, if Rei remembered correctly. "Surely, you'd prefer to go back to your mansion?"

"I- wha-?" she muttered, confused. She didn't live in a mansion. Niisan said the mansions were too hard to keep clean... okay, so they maybe had a point. Unfortunately, it seemed the rest of the group agreed with Izumi. They turned away from her, chatting about civilian fashions and which boy was hottest...

"Okay, you are aware that we are eight years old, right? We're too young to talk about that kind of thing." Izumi whirled around, her pale blue hair whipping out behind her. "Just go home, _princess_. I'm sure nobody wants your clan associating with people like us."

Blinking back tears, Rei ran off into the woods, not giving them the satisfaction of making her cry. Hiding behind a tree, she curled up, hugging her knees to her chest. The fact that she'd never realised they all hated her hurt almost as much as actually being hated did. She was a smart girl. She should have known...

"A-are you alright?" came a voice to her right. Rei quickly wiped her eyes before looking up at the source. Wow. That... was a _lot_ of orange.

"'Scuse me, are you ok?" repeated the boy, blue eyes staring down at her. It was then she noticed the marks on his cheeks. Three long whisker marks on each side. Rei responded in the only way that came to mind.

"What are you wearing?" she gaped, eyes drawn to the monstrous jumpsuit. It was just so... _neon_. Shaking her head, she started over. Best to make a good first impression. "Sorry. My name is Uchiha Rei. Who are you?" A huge grin threatened to split the boy's face in two at that.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Future Hokage! Nice to meetcha, Rei-chan!" he declared, striking a pose in the middle of his introduction. "I'm gonna be the strongest ninja ever and make everybody acknowledge me!"

"..." For the first time she could remember, Rei was speechless. This boy was an idiot, but... a nice idiot. He didn't treat her like an outsider. "...would you like to play?" Oh Kami, she sounded like a toddler.

"Sure thing, Rei-chan!" he beamed, offering her a hand. Rei smiled shyly in response, as the two ran off towards the park.

SCENE BREAK

Boar stumbled into the Uchiha compound, covered in dirt, ready to meet his fate. Maybe if the gods were merciful, Hokage-sama would give him a quick death.

"Hiya, ANBU-san!" came a cheery voice. A dark-haired girl bounded up to him, smiling widely. "Thanks for letting me go to the park today. I know Niisan said we shouldn't, but I'm glad you brought me."

"...no problem, Uchiha-san. Please excuse me." Boar stepped quickly around the corner before dropping to his knees in fervent prayer. _"Praise be to Kami! I swear I shall serve you as your willing servant..."_

Rei walked into the house at the centre of the compound just as Sasuke fumbled his way into the hall, silently cursing Neko for costing him valuable paperwork hours.

"Hi Niisan!" chirped Rei as Sasuke came into view. "Guess what! I made a new friend today!" she beamed. Sasuke gave a smirk despite himself. Be nice to the kids, they can help you deal with Neko.

"Really? Who?" he asked. While his year was the one with the clan heirs, all the aacademy classes had children from at least one of Konoha's clans. Any connection would help in future alliances. Politics were needlessly complicated, really.

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto." Those five words were all that Sasuke heard, the rest fading into white noise.

What. The dead last of his year had somehow made friends with an Uchiha. The guy wore neon orange! Wait, was that... yes, that was a blush. _"Oh dear sweet Sage of Six Paths, my cousin has a crush on Uzumaki. Well fuck." _Sasuke responded to this realisation in the expected manner.

THUMP!

"ANBU-san! Niisan fell asleep in the hall!"

X

So, that's that done. If you liked it, hated it or just have questions, leave a review.


	3. Growing

Okay, pretty amazed by the response this is getting so far. I'm going to keep writing at the speed of inspiration, which is basically saying I'll update when I update. Sorry if anyone got their hopes up too much.

To questions;

heyitsmehahaha: Itachi is still the same person he was in canon, it's just that he avoided killing the children this time around. This universe's Itachi was more... insistent on that point. Coincidentally, that bought Tobi a few extra seconds to leave the compound.

FYI:  
"Words words words." = speech  
_"Thinking things" _= Thought (occasionally rendered as normal paragraphs for mental ranting)  
_**Flashback**_  
_**"**_**Bijuu/ boss summon/ Demons, etc., speaking"**

To the story!

Despite Sasuke's best efforts, Rei continued to meet up with Naruto almost every day. He did, however, manage to keep the rest of his clan away from the class clown. This was easier said than done. Keeping track of six academy students over four different classes, not to mention the four kids too young to attend, was near impossible for a nine year old. At least the ANBU were around to assist.

The ANBU were really a godsend. Sasuke had opposed them at first, before the Hokage had set him straight.

(flashback)

_**"Hokage-sama, I can do this! The clan is my responsibilty!" Sasuke protested. Ita- no, That Man had been in ANBU. If one of them was there to finish the job started that night... NO! No-one was going to take the rest of his family away from him!**_

_**"Sasuke." the old man interjected, voice not wavering even slightly. The Hokage's face was stern, no indication of the argument affecting him even slightly.**_

_**"You are correct. The position of clan head falls to you. However, you are still a child. There is no way you can do everything that being the head of one of the founding clans will demand. Not to mention your studies. If you want to graduate, that will take up even more of your time than your political responsibility. In addition, you are in no position to take care of the other children at seven years of age." Sasuke bristled. That Man was a genin at his age, legally an adult.**_

_**"Itachi was ANBU." he eventually muttered, spitting the name with as much venom as he could muster. If one could turn, so could the rest. Sasuke stared at the ground, cursing the water building up in the corner of his eyes.**_

_**"Itachi was a mistake." That got a reaction from the boy, whipping his head up suddenly. "I should never have allowed him into ANBU. Maybe it was a mistake for him to even become a shinobi in the first place. This lifestyle can turn even the best of people into something we regret." The Sandaime had not turned his gaze away for even an instant as he spoke.**_

_**"I will not let you go down that same path. You are free to want revenge. That is human nature. But you must not let it consume you. If that happens, you could become the kind of monster you hated. I have seen too many people broken beyond repair in my life. You, Sasuke, will not be one of them. I swear it.**_

_**"I am not asking you to trust blindly in the ANBU. I am asking you to trust in me. The only guards I will assign will be those I would trust with my own life. None of them will betray you." The old man had stood up to his full height, hands curled into fists. The conviction in his words had surprised Sasuke. The Sandaime... was worried for him? No, not worried, but determined not to let him be hurt.**_

_**It was a humbling experience. His father had made the Hokage out to be, not weak, but past his prime, claiming that a successor should have been chosen sooner. In the span of a few moments, Sasuke had seen different. Regardless of personal power, this man was a Hokage. He embodied the 'Will of Fire' that the academy had referenced. And he was asking Sasuke to trust him.**_

_**Sasuke took a moment to compose himself before assenting to the ANBU being posted to the clan compound. He had no idea what such a small gesture meant to the old man, or how much it would change things in the future.**_

(No longer a flashback)

Sasuke grinned to himself as he saw Daiki, another of his cousins, practising the Gokakyu no Jutsu, spewing out a cloud of thick black smoke. Despite his reservations, the ANBU had fit into the clan's daily lives. Most were coldly professional, but others, like Inu-san and Neko-san, were more... normal. Sasuke appreciated that. Inu-san was like a mentor, subtly giving tips for improving on academy jutsu or Taijutsu forms. Neko-san was more like an older cousin, ready to banter with them in addition to performing his duties.

Now, if he could only get the Uzumaki to leave his cousin alone, life would be pretty good. He'd finally found the secret to dealing with paperwork. Kami bless Katon ninjutsu. The kids got to practice and he got rid of headaches before they began.

An lion-masked ANBU walked past Sasuke into the compound, not stopping to offer a greeting. Odd, even the coldest of the ANBU usually offered a customary "hello" or words to that effect. He put it to the back of his mind as Daiki ran up to him, babbling excitedly about the academy and how Mizuki-sensei had shown them some cool weapons and...

SCENE BREAK

The agent-in-place let out a silent breath as he passed the threshold of the 'clan head's' home. His role was clear, observation and document retrieval. That said, impersonating a member of ANBU, infiltrating the compound of a founding clan, stealing secure documents, all of those could result in severe consequences. But he was but an extension of his master's will. The consequences for returning after a failure would be even worse than being caught by Konoha. With no time to dwell on possibilities, he began searching the room for his targets.

SCENE BREAK

Naruto laughed as he ran across the rooftops, various merchants and customers chasing him at ground level, screaming vengefully at him. If they wouldn't respect him, they had to respect his awesome skills! If he could find someone to teach him some awesome jutsu, then between that and his pranking, he'd be Hokage in no time, 'ttebayo!

The thoughts of awesome jutsu reminded him of something he'd been putting off for too long. The young blond groaned as he headed towards one of the less popular training grounds, where he was less likely to get chased off. Kami-damned academy jutsus...

SCENE BREAK

The agent was growing frustrated. So much paper, none of it helpful. If he didn't find something soon... his thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of a boar-masked ANBU. The two of them stood still for a moment before Boar drew his sword. The agent relaxed his postrue as Boar approached, katana held at his side.

"You're not part of the Uchiha guard. Who sent you?" he hissed, hand tensing on his weapon's hilt. "Answer me, or I call for backup. We'll see how long you last against Ibiki's interrogations." Whatever reaction Boar had expected, a deep chuckle wasn't part of it.

"...Fuck it. Plan B it is then." Boar's eyes narrowed at that. "What the hell are you tal-" he cut off in mid-sentence. A sword bursting through your chest will do that to you. The imposter leaned in from behind him, having dropped the genjutsu.

"For an elite, you really don't have much in the way of skill, do you?" You could hear the smirk in the bastard's voice. "A pity. Still, you might buy me some time yet. Try not to bleed out too quick." With that, the sword was dropped to the floor and Boar slumped to the ground beside it.

The agent rolled his eyes behind the mask. And to think, he'd been concerned about being caught. Now, to collect his prize.

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke stood at the gate to the clan training grounds, watching as Rei tried to complete the Gokakyu. Smiling as a burst of flame appeared from the girl's mouth, he walked over to her.

"As expected of an Uchiha," he smirked, paraphrasing his father's praise to him. "I hear you're in the running for kunoichi of the year; is that right?" His cousin's face lit up as she replied.

"Yeah, I figured, if the rest of the class won't respect me for being an Uchiha, I can at least get them to respect my skill as a ninja. There's only one guy in my class doing better than me, and he's a Hyuuga from the main house, so..." Sasuke frowned in response.

"You shouldn't assume he's better because of where he's from. The Hyuuga are a lot more arrogant than they deserve to be. They have an unearned sense of ego from that Dojutsu of theirs." At this point, Sasuke was greeted by the sight of his cousin, the semi-official heir to the Uchiha clan, rolling on the ground, giggling madly. Seriously, he knew he lacked the presence his father had when speaking, but surely he deserved more respect than that...

"What is going on?" he asked, bewildered. Rei was usually more composed than some of the other kids.

"N-Narut-to-kun s-said the same about you..." she gasped between fits of giggles. Sasuke finally lost it. The Dobe was mocking him behind his back? How dare he? (the hypocrisy of the situation never occured to Sasuke. Some sources would later claim that selective perceptions were the true Uchiha bloodline. Studies were inconclusive.)

"Rei, you are forbidden to see Uzumaki again. He is a failure, a troublemaker and not to be associated with." The tone of the conversation turned sour instantly.

"Forbidden? You can't decide who my friends are, Nii-san." Rei muttered darkly. "I like Naruto-kun. He doesn't treat me like I'm delicate, or like I'm arrogant or anything. I don't care that he's a failure, 'cause he's the only person outside the compound who sees me for who I am, and not who the rest of the Uchiha were!" The girl wiped her eyes and stormed off, leaving Sasuke behind, absolutely confused. He stepped forwards to try to make amends, only to find himself thrown to the ground with a shadow in front of him.

The air... _changed_, for lack of a better term. Sasuke found himself reliving That night. The sensation of death, of the intent to kill, was overwhelming. The figure in front of him turned around. Grey eyes set deeply into a scarred face, which was contorted in a sneer.

"Worthless maggot," he cackled. "Pity I'm in a rush, I could really enjoy killing you." The man then fired a kick at Rei with enough force to knock her to the ground. Sasuke struggled to get back to his feet, pulling out a kunai and stumbling forwards as the assailant bent down in front of him. A fist to his gut knocked him back to his knees.

"I already got my prize. I don't need you tagging along." the man grunted, a barely-conscious Rei now slung over his shoulder. He steadied himself for a second before making a break for the trees at the edge of the compound. Sasuke's heart stopped. It was happening again. The rest of his family were going to be taken away from him. That pain, that fear was back in full force.

**NO! He was not going to lose anyone else! Never again!** Sasuke pushed himself to a standing postion and sprinted ahead, his gaze focused on the bastard who thought he could take away his cousin. In his rage, he never noticed how easy it was to follow his prey's movements as a single tomoe span in each red eye.

Chapter 2 down!

Damn you asshole evil ninjas and your child-grabbing ways...

I'll be doing my best to keep updating for the next few weeks at least. Hope this is okay, had a complete brain failure when Sasuke and Rei were talking and the rest kind of got thrown together instead of flowing properly. Still feels weird when I read over it. Enjoy?


	4. Conflict

Time for plot to happen, eh? I've been trying to get this bit specifically for a while, since it's going to affect how things happen later in the story. And, seeing as we don't have many questions...

To the story.

Naruto groaned as a burst of catra-_chakra_- knocked him off his feet. The damn Kawarimi was so hard! Kokatsu-sensei hadn't been any help either, giving him the wrong instructions.

(flashback)

_**"Naruto-kun, what are you doing?" Rei piped up as they sat in the park. Well, she was sitting. Naruto was cycling awkwardly through hand seals. He smiled brightly. "Kokatsu-sensei said I could get the Kawarimi done quicker if I used these seals." His grin faltered slightly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Doesn't seem to be workin' so well though..."**_

_**"Let me have a proper look." Rei said, seemingly on a whim. Naruto nodded, going through the cycle slowly. Snake, Ram, Reverse dragon, Bird, Ox. A malformed chakra burst shot out from him, the blue wave rustling the leaves above. On the other hand, Naruto didn't move an inch from his start position.**_

_**"That... was probably the least effective thing I've ever seen." came the blunt response. Naruto sweatdropped. "You're so mean, Rei-chan..." he whined. She shook her head before she spoke again.**_

_**"No, no, that's not- Listen. That jutsu was probably just random hand seals. The fact that you're here and not blown to bits is impressive. But why would Kokatsu-sensei give you something like that." As she spoke, Naruto's expression grew stormier.**_

_**"'Cause he hates me, just like the rest of the village." he growled. Rei started to feel worried. She'd noticed the looks Naruto got from some of the civilians, but the whole village hating him? That must feel...**_

_**"...horrible." she muttered. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes. Both of them were thinking about how the village was not always as perfect a place as it seemed to outsiders.**_

_**"Not everybody hates you." Rei offered eventually. Naruto continued to stare at the ground in silence. "You've got me, the two civilans running that ramen place..." she trailed off, realising that she couldn't actually think of anyone else. Fortunately, Naruto raised his head.**_

_**"I've got Jiji too, and Iruka-sensei doesn't seem too bad..." he gave a small smile. He wiped an orange sleeve across his eyes before breaking into another big grin. "Thanks, Rei-chan. At this rate, I'll get everyone's respect and be Hokage in no time!"**_

(not flashback)

Naruto's eyes hardened. He was going to be Hokage. Not just to get respect from the village, but to live up to the promises he made to look after the people who believed in him. He cycled through the five correct seals again. Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake!

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke sprinted at full speed through the forest. The ninja who had taken Rei was jumping through the branches of the trees above. Sasuke was limited to ground level, but had the dubious advantage of tracking his target's progress, which was hampered by Rei's struggles.

Sasuke glanced at the path ahead, where a fallen tree stood like an enormous wall. Taking stock of his options, he leapt at a tree to his left, using it as a stepping stone to leap up to the top of the log.

_"Hang on, Rei, I'm coming." _he thought desperately as he pounced forwards again.

SCENE BREAK

Neko was carrying Uchiha Megumi home when he heard the screaming. Rushing to the source - _Sasuke's house,_ he noted worriedly - he found Kenta and Daiki, shaking. Sprawled across the floor, in a pool of blood, was Boar. Dropping Megumi carefully to the floor, he knelt to check the man's vitals. A faint pulse which was fading quickly, he noted grimly. He hurriedly created a pair of clones to watch over the kids as he rushed to the hospital.

A slight jolt as he jumped from roof to roof woke his dazed passenger. "Where..." he choked, spitting blood. "Where... kids?" Neko admired his resolve. Even with a lung pierced and extensive blood loss, he was still worried for his charges. "Th-they're okay, Boar-san." he offered, cursing his momentary hesitation. A whisper came from the limp form in his arms.

"..not Boar... Hayate." Neko's eyes widened behind his mask. An ANBU was ordered never to give their name unless... unless it no longer mattered who they were. He pushed on at full speed. _"Don't you die on us, Hayate..."_

SCENE BREAK

Naruto flopped onto his back, gasping, but the smile on his face betrayed his feelings. _"I did it! I finally got that stupid jutsu down!" _he thought, elated, as he glanced at the log sitting a few feet away. _"Wonder where the logs come from?"_ he thought absently, shoving himself off the ground and sitting up straight. The boy's breathing evened out after a few moments.

Unbeknownst to him, a lavender-haired girl with pale eyes was watching him intently. In fact, Naruto had no idea that he actually had a bona-fide stalker. The Hyuuga heiress was one of the few people who knew what Naruto was truly like. Having a bloodline geared towards peeping- er, spying- er, _observation _really came in handy for shadowing people. Discreetly, that is, no witnesses.

Speaking of... a man ran into the training ground, a curious bundle slung over his shoulder. Naruto's eyes flashed over to the source of movement, squinting at the bundle. Hinata made a few hand seals, the veins near her temple bulging. She and Naruto quickly came to the same conclusion. _"That's a person!"_

A panting Sasuke leapt into the clearing, firing a handful of shuriken at the man's back. "YOU WON'T TAKE MY FAMILY AWAY AGAIN!" he yelled. Naruto scrambled forwards, realising that something really, really bad was happening. The stranger ducked to one side to avoid the projectiles, giving Naruto a better look at his passenger. _"Rei-chan!"_

The kidnapper smirked as the projectiles passed harmlessly to one side. "Careful now, Sasuke-kun. Wouldn't want your little cousin getting hurt, now would you?" The dark-haired boy hesitated for a moment before whipping a hand to one side, the shuriken changing direction mid-flight. Sasuke smirked as the stars nicked his opponent's side, slicing the fake flak jacket open. The man's expression turned to fury.

"You little bastard! I'm definitely going to kill you for that. But first..." he grinned evilly, pulling out a kunai. "I think I'd best make sure this little piggy doesn't squeal." He cackled madly, as Sasuke rushed ahead desperately.

A cloud of smoke obscured Rei for a second before a foot shot out to catch the surprised kidnapper in the gut, sending him stumbling. The two fighters gazed dumbly at the interrupting party. A severely pissed off academy student, clad in a dirt-covered orange jumpsuit.

"I don't know who you are, bastard, but you messed with the wrong ninja. If you try to hurt Rei-chan, I'll fuck you up! You just pissed off Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage! Now bring it-" For good or ill, Naruto's speech was interrupted by a flying knee strike as the assailant glanced around wildly.

"Where is she? Where the fuck is she? You little shit, what did you do?" he half-hissed, half-yelled. Naruto shuffled back into a poor fighting stance, smiling confidently. "Kawarimi no jutsu, asswipe! You're never gonna find her!" That was possibly the wrong thing to say, as the man's expression grew more manic, if that were possible, and a hysterical giggle escaped him.

"Hehehe... well, can't turn up empty-handed, now can I... hehe... good thing you've got your eyes, Uchiha; we might both survive this..." With that, he dashed forwards, slashing wildly with his kunai. Sasuke ducked and weaved, receiving a few shallow cuts before a flying orange child distracted them both.

"Don't you ignore me you bastards!" he screamed, trying to shoulder charge the adult. He closed a fist around the strips of cloth dangling from the man's jacket, literally climbing on him to try to slow him down. Sasuke watched intently, waiting for an opening. He gritted his teeth. _"The dead last might buy us some time, but... Kami-damnit, where the hell are the ANBU?"_

SCENE BREAK

Hinata rushed back into Konoha as quickly as she could, ignoring the stares from people she passed. It wasn't every day you saw the heiress to Konoha's most noble clan carrying the unconscious form of the heiress to Konoha's second most noble clan. The rumours from that day would endure for years to come, with the story eventually being picked up by a certain white-haired author, resulting in an extension of his best-selling series of 'novels'. This would result in the third time Jiraiya's life was in mortal danger. But we'll get to that.

A silver-haired ANBU raised an eyebrow behind his mask. If Rei-chan got injured, then why was Hyuuga-san with her? Where was Sasuke? Neko? Heck, even Naruto would be trying to help her. Shaking thoughts of Naruto from his head, he readied a Shunshin lazily, landing in front of the girls in a puff of smoke.

"Hyuuga-san. What happened?" he asked politely, smiling inwardly as she jumped. Ah, kids. The girl stammered incoherently before steeling herself. "ANBU-san. Sasuke-san and N-Naruto-k-san are in danger. S-someone t-tried to kidnap this girl b-but N-naruto-san rescued her. They need h-help!" Inu's heart pounded. pausing only long enough to get directions from the girl before moving at a speed that would shame the Yondaime Hokage.

_"Damnit! Don't die, you two!" _he thought desperately. _"I can't lose anyone else!"_

Chapter 3 down!

I realised like halfway through this that I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea about Boar being Hayate either, but then it just kind of happened. The reason, by the way, that his codename is in english instead of japanese is because I could not stop myslef from imagining Ino being involved in some weird time-travel bullshit. And that is something I feel would be more suited for a different story.

Rant over, see ya later!


	5. First Blood

Blegh. Fight scenes are hard you guys. Especially when, you know, magic ninjas. On the other hand, I'm really happy about the response to this. I love you people.

BTW, **family-and-free-will**, Itachi's motives are going to be revealed soon. Heheheh...

To the story!

Naruto found himself flying across the training ground, with a torn piece of cloth in his hand. Scrambling into a crouching position, he saw Sasuke get pushed back from a hastily blocked strike. Their opponent ran through hand seals, ending with both hands splayed out in front. "Chirigakure no Jutsu!" he roared, a gust of wind covering the area in a cloud of dust. The boys stood back to back, eyes darting around wildly.

"Any ideas, teme?" Naruto hissed. He hated having to defer to anyone but he was willing to admit that Sasuke was slightly-_slightly- _better at planning and stuff. At least, that's what the Academy teachers thought. Sasuke gritted his teeth before whispering back. "I'll use Gokakyu no Jutsu to clear the dust, then we hang back and keep him distracted until the ANBU arrive. Ready?" Not waiting for an answer, he readied the technique until a hand grabbed his shoulder and threw him to the ground.

"Damnit, teme! I thought you were s'posed to be a genius! If you send a fireball into this dust shit, it's gonna explode, and then we're both screwed!" yelled the blond. A sharp jab to his gut cut off his rant as the dust settled back to the ground. The enemy, satisfied that one annoyance was dealt with, turned his attention back to Sasuke.

"You fucked it up kid. Now I need to teach you a lesson." He grinned madly, pulling out a tanto. He charged the boy, sword flashing wildly. Sasuke jumped backwards, barely keeping ahead of the blade. He was so focused on the sword that he found himself blindsided by a leg sweep. As he fell, a hand shot out to suspend him by his throat.

Naruto pushed himself to his knees. _"Damnit, the bastard's in trouble. Gotta... get... back... UP!" _he thought desperately, trying to block out the pain in his side. Moving his hand away, he was shocked to find it bloody. _"Shit! Asshole must have got me with the edge of a kunai or something. Doesn't matter, I've gotta do __**something**__!" _As the boy painfully pushed himself to his feet, a memory struck him.

(flashback time)

**"Jiji, what does the Hokage actually do?" asked a four-year-old Naruto as he leant over a bowl of Ichiraku Ramen. The old man looked down in surprise. "Why do you ask, Naruto?"**

**"Cause you're always real busy, and cause you're really strong and I wanna be strong too!" chirped the boy, with all the logic of a child. The old man smiled sadly, taking a few moments before responding.**

**"Being Hokage means that you are responsible for the village. You take on the duty to protect everyone and everything. To do so, you have to be as strong as you can." Naruto's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "So, I don't get it. That sounds really tough. Why do you do it?" The conversation stalled for a minute as Sarutobi formulated an answer.**

**"Because it's the best way to protect the things important to you. If I didn't do this, someone else would, and it could be someone who didn't care... Remember this, Naruto, a leader's role is to protect his followers." Naruto looked down, steam rising from a fresh bowl. The two continued their meal in silence.**

**"Hey, Jiji?" muttered Naruto. "Someday, I'm gonna be Hokage!" A raised eyebrow was the first response. "Oh, really?" "Yeah! I'm gonna protect the village, just like you!" The two shared grins as they finished eating.**

(now time)

The kidnapper laughed as Sasuke struggled in his grasp. "Hah! I was right, this is fun! I'm definitely gonna have to come back to this village someday. Maybe I'll take another crack at that little bitch that got away." A spike of chakra caught both their attentions. The kidnapper turned, and Sasuke stared past him at a distinctly feral Naruto. His eyes had narrowed to slits, his nails and teeth had grown longer and sharper and his whisker marks had thickened and deepened. Wisps of red chakra swirled around him as he snarled.

"You won't hurt **ANYONE ELSE!**" he roared, bursting forwards with increased speed, tackling the man and catching him by the collar. Sasuke dropped to his feet, staring at the source of vile energy in front of him. _"Oh Kami, what the hell has Uzumaki been hiding? This feeling... it's like that night all over again..."_

The sickly, evil chakra spread over the village. Civilians felt ill and weak, shinobi panicked at the reminder of the Kyuubi attack and in the Hokage tower, an old man readied himself for battle or rescue. However, no inhabitant of Konoha was more affected by the yokai than an ANBU rushing towards the training ground. _"Damnit, is the seal breaking? Just hang on, boys, I'm coming!"_

SCENE BREAK

Neko glanced out the window of the hospital as a wave of killing intent washed over the village. _"The Kyuubi? No, not as strong... what the hell is happening?" _he wondered as a pale-faced medic-nin came up to him, removing his surgical mask. "ANBU-san? We've managed to stabilise your friend. However, it seems his lung was severely damaged. He will likely have to retire from his shinobi career." Neko nodded gravely. "But he will survive, correct?"

"Y-yes. If you don't mind me asking, why did you not react to the Kyuubi's power? It was a-a nightmare trying to keep everyone focused in there." Neko stared at him, very unnerving with the mask. "If that sensation was the Kyuubi, we'd be dead already. I have faith in the Yondaime's sealing." The medic blinked before nodding in agreement. Neko turned back to the window. _"Still... something must be wrong. I hope the kid is okay..."_

SCENE BREAK

Naruto growled deeply as his opponent disappeared in a puff of smoke. Another dust cloud rose up around him before he lashed out catching _something_ in a claw strike, flecks of red dripping to the ground. A haze flickered and the older man reappeared. "How the fuck did you find me? Nobody can see through my camouflage techniques!" Naruto gave a wild-eyed grin, before replying in a deeper voice than normal. **"The nose knows, bastard. I could smell you a mile off."****  
**

_"Shit! There's almost no smell-based genjutsu. How the fuck am I meant to counter that?" _he thought, before flipping through seals and slamming a palm to the ground "Doton: Ishi Danmaku!" A swarm of small rocks rose up from the ground and flew towards the two boys. Sasuke leapt back out of reach as Naruto crossed his arms to block the worst of the attack. As he lowered them, numerous bruises and small cuts healing rapidly, he found himself surrounded by a wall of dust particles. Darting forwards, he was surprised to find himself knocked backwards forcefully.

"Ninpo: Sajin Kekkai. You won't get out of there anytime soon, brat." came the voice from outside as Naruto shook his head, his brief surge of power fading as quickly as it had appeared. The enemy smirked as he grabbed a kunai mid-flight, Sasuke's arm still outstretched from the throw. "Now to get back to you, Uchiha-sama." he drawled. Sasuke glanced over at the barrier, his unlikely ally barely visible through the floating grit. A... _plan_, for lack of a better term, began to form. "Hey Dobe!" he shouted, forming familiar hand seals. "You ready for a quick escape?" He could make out movement inside the dust and took it as agreement to his strategy.

"Gokakyu no jutsu!" he called, a fireball heading past the man towards the barrier, catching him off-guard. "Ha! Is that-" he began, before a burst of smoke enveloped him. The smoke was blown away by an explosion coming from the barrier, a distinctly bedraggled-looking Naruto flying towards Sasuke, riding the blast front. The dark-haired boy offered him a hand as they looked at the charred form of their opponent. He was then caught unawares by a blow to the jaw, courtesy of an irate blond. "What the _fuck_, teme!? You coulda killed me, 'ttebayo!" Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. "You don't look dead to me." Naruto gazed blankly at him.

"Did-did you just make a joke?" he asked, bewildered. Any response was silenced as the supposed corpse pounced on them, pinning Sasuke to the ground under his foot and holding Naruto by the jaw. "You little pieces of _shit_!" he hissed, his face badly burned and covered in soot. "I was gonna kill you, but now? Now I'mma make you suffer." He drove his heel into the Uchiha's ribs as Naruto scratched his arm in an attempt to break free. "And when I'm done, then you're really in for it, 'cause then I'll hand you over to - the hell is that noise?" he barked, as the sound of birds chirping filled the training ground. "Those fucking birds, I-" he cut himself off, dropping Naruto and relieving the pressure on Sasuke's chest.

Inu grunted and pulled his arm out of the corpse. A pity, at least for Ibiki and Anko. Maybe the medics could find something. He turned to look at the two boys, who looked shocked at seeing a man killed in front of them. Sasuke was shivering, clutching his chest and staring at the ANBU's blood-coated hand. _"Shit. Should have known he'd take that badly. Damnit Kakashi, you traumatised a pair of kids who really, really didn't need it." _He called up a ball of water from a Suiton jutsu to wash his arm. "You two did well. I need you to come with me, the Hokage needs to be informed at once."

SCENE BREAK

"...and that's when Inu-san turned up and killed the other guy." concluded Naruto, as he and Sasuke gave a report to the Hokage. Mostly Naruto, with the other boy clarifying when necessary. They were accompanied by Inu, who had also picked up Rei and Hinata on the way. The younger girl was uncharacteristically quiet, sniffling as Inu and Sasuke tried to offer some comfort. Hinata, meanwhile, was glancing surreptitiously at Naruto every few minutes and blushing. The Hokage leant back in his seat as each of the four children squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze.

"First of all, I have to say you all did extremely well. Naruto and Sasuke, you managed to hold your own against an enemy ninja. Based on what I've heard, I would guess him to be chuunin level at least." The two boys perked up noticeably at this little ego boost. "Rei, you didn't panic when an enemy attacked you, well done. Even I froze the first time I faced a stronger opponent." Rei nodded urgently, wiping her eyes. "Hinata, you went to find help when your comrades are in danger. All of you will make excellent shinobi in future. In fact..." he trailed off, scrawling something on a few sheets of paper. "Here you are, kids. I have recorded this as a C-rank mission completed by the five of you. You can hand these in to the mission office downstairs to receive your payment." Each of the kids took a form, Naruto cheering as they made their way out to meet Neko outside the office. "Alright, ramen's on me, you guys!"

As the children left with Neko, Inu removed his ANBU mask. "Hokage-sama, I heard about Hayate..." The old man sighed. "Yes, it's unfortunate. However, it seems he's likely to recover, though his health likely won't be the same again." The two remained silent for a few moments before Kakashi chuckled darkly. "What is it, Kakashi?" enquired the Sandaime. "I'm just... I trained with Hayate. He was one of the best swordsmen I've ever seen. Seems a shame to cut that short." The Sandaime nodded gravely. "He wasn't the only victim. ANBU Shishi was found dead in the forest. It appears he discovered our spy and had to be dealt with. In any case, I want you to accompany Neko to watch over the kids. They shouldn't be left alone right now." Replacing his mask, Inu nodded. "Hai, Hokage-sama."

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke was conflicted as he accompanied the impromptu group to a place called Ichiraku Ramen. _"You know what you have to do. An Uchiha always repays a debt. - But he's the dobe! - Yeah, a dobe who saved your student of the year ass. Now suck it up and do what you have to!" _Gritting his teeth, he turned to Naruto. "Uzumaki." he muttered. "Mmph?" came the eloquent response. "I- I..." Sasuke huffed, steeling himself for what he had to do. "I want to induct you as a retainer of the Uchiha clan." The entire restaurant fell silent, except for the sudden thud of a trained ANBU falling off his stool. Naruto blinked and swallowed loudly.

"Sure." Their other companions dropped their jaws in shock as Naruto continued eating happily before turning to Sasuke in confusion. "Hey te- er, Sasuke? What's a retainer?" Sasuke resisted the urge to facepalm. _"Oh, this can't end well."_

SCENE BREAK

Orochimaru bit back a hiss of pain, clutching his freshly severed arm. Sharingan eyes stared down into yellow slits as the older man backed away. "Orochimaru. Did you really think you were worthy of the power of the Sharingan? You're pathetic. A worm disguised as a snake." Orochimaru took the speech as an opportunity to flee. Itachi smirked behind his collar. _"No better than what you deserve, treacherous snake... nobody goes after the Uchiha clan while I'm alive."_

A slow clapping caught his attention. "Very nice, Itachi. You showed him what being a true prodigy means." The speaker was an orange-masked man wearing the standard black and red Akatsuki cloak. "Tobi. Or are you answering to Madara at the moment?" The masked man approached Itachi, no fear visible in his stance. "Oh, don't think I don't know what you're doing. If those kids are interfering with your duties, I may need to... remove the distractions." A kunai flew harmlessly through the man's head. "Oh, well done. Truly, excellent reflexes. Just remember who you work for, boy." he chuckled as he disappeared in a swirl of chakra. Itachi clenched a fist. _"Damn. If he's serious..." _he glanced down at the blood in his palm. _"Perhaps I should find some allies of my own..."_

And that's Chapter 4!

_Original Jutsu:_

_Name/ Translation/ Rank/ Description_

Chirigakure no Jutsu/ Hiding in Dust technique/ D/ A cloud of dust is raised to hinder the opponent's movement and visibility.

Doton: Ishi Danmaku/ Earth Release: Stone Barrage/ C/ A pile of small rocks and pebbles is launched at the enemy.

Ninpo: Sajin Kekkai/ Ninja art: Dust Barrier/ B/ A cloud of dust is raised to form walls around the enemy. It condenses in response to attacks and enemy movements.

So, that was that. Let me know what you think!


	6. Closer

'Sup, guys! I'm really happy with the amount of hits this is getting. I keep finding little things in this that never made it into my notes. Here's hoping all works out ok.

Chapter 5 is go!

Sasuke stared at the blond-haired idiot who had casually agreed to become a clan retainer. "O-ok then. Come to the compound tomorrow and we'll make everything official, I guess..." The blond just hummed happily as he stuffed his mouth with noodles before a dark-eyed girl and the waitress of the stand grabbed him in a tight hug, squealing madly. Sasuke glanced at his saner companions. Neko was looking back and forth, pointing at Sasuke and sputtering. Hinata, meanwhile, was staring red-faced at Naruto and seemingly attempting to retreat into her jacket. _"That's right, she's fallen for Uzumaki as well. Huh. Interesting."_

"Ayame-neechan! Stop that!" groaned Naruto as the older girl ruffled his hair, leaving it even more unkempt than usual. The girl's face fell and she pouted. "Aww... but you're such a cute chibi..." "I am not a chibi! I just haven't hit a growth spurt yet!" argued the boy, jumping out of reach, before the waitress gasped audibly. "Naruto-kun! Is that blood?" she whispered, gazing at his red-stained jumpsuit.

"Wha- oh, yeah, but I'm fine, nee-chan! It's not even sore anymore!" he insisted. "Uzumaki Naruto! You take that off right now! You can't walk around the village like that." Hearing the tone, the boy's grin slipped and he muttered something inaudible. "What was that?" the stall owner asked, eyebrows knitted in concern. Naruto sighed, a defeated expression on his face.

"I said I don't have anything else to wear. I brought my stuff to the dry-cleaner's, and it kinda got... damaged." he murmured dejectedly. Sasuke looked on in concern. _"Damn, seems like Rei was right. He really does have some problems." _Speaking of, his cousin was sending him a pleading look... as was the Hyuuga... and Neko, somehow. Sasuke clutched the bridge of his nose as he accepted his defeat.

"Come on, we'll find something at the compound for now, and then tomorrow, you can pick up something else." Naruto stared blankly. "A-are you sure?" he asked quietly, the sound seeming completely out of place coming from the boisterous academy student. "Yeah, yeah, now let's get going, the rest of the kids'll be waiting... for... dinner..." he groaned, before several large takeout bags were plonked on the counter behind him.

"Here you go, Uchiha-sama!" boomed the chef as he pushed them over to Neko. "Consider it a gift to reward your first proper mission!" Naruto beamed as he grabbed one of the bags. "Thanks, Teuchi-jiisan! They're gonna love it!" Sasuke bowed deeply, once again surprising everyone. "I will be sure to repay your kindness, Ichiraku-san." he offered, before the five of them exited the stand, Naruto and Rei chatting excitedly. _"Ah well, at least the worst part of today is over..."_

SCENE BREAK

"Just pick something already, Uzumaki! You've been in the closet for hours now! Jus- Daiki, I can hear you laughing and you _know what I meant_! Just grab the closest thing to you and throw it on!" the young clan head groaned, already feeling the migraine looming over him. The Uzumaki was just the tip of the iceberg, with him being glomped by eight kids and an ANBU as soon as he reached the compound, all demanding to know _who _and _where_ and _what happened, Niisan_, not to mention the mad scramble for food.

"Alright, but you really need more orange in here. Your stuff is pretty lame..." came the response as Naruto stepped out, now clad in a blue short-sleeved shirt and white shorts. _"Kami, he's thin." _mused Sasuke as his guest entered the room, looking uncharacteristically self-conscious.

"Alright, sorry to interrupt your little fashion show, but if you want to be at the academy tomorrow, you'd all best turn in for the night." interjected Inu, slouching against the wall. Sasuke and Naruto glared at the man before the younger kids scattered, most of them bursting into the hallway, only to find themselves in a wooden cage, with Neko waving cheerily at them from outside. Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose as Daiki and Rei shrugged at Naruto's confusion. "...every night. Every damn night. Uzumaki, if you want, there's a sleeping mat in the closet. Just grab it and set it up wherever." Naruto nodded dumbly as he watched the chaos of two ANBU and three academy students trying to corral seven ninja children into bedrooms. _"This place seems... kinda weird..."_

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke placed a hand against his face as he heard crying coming from the next room. With the ANBU trying to watch multiple buildings, they had bundled the kids together into three of the homesteads in the compound. Sasuke's neighbours just so happened to be Rei-chan on one side and Megumi-chan on the other. While Rei had more or less passed out immediately after the day's events, the youngest member of the clan had become upset on hearing about 'the bad man who hurt Niisan and scared Rei-nee'.

The sound of feet shuffling in the hall outside caught his attention. By the time he heard a low voice speaking, he was standing outside his cousin's door, kunai in hand. In one motion, he threw the door open and launched the knife at the figure his mind registered only as Not-Megumi.

"What the _fuck_, teme?!" came the hissed response. Sasuke blinked, deactivating his bloodline. Sitting next to the bed was his unplanned houseguest, the young girl curled in against him, shivering. The older Uchiha stared blankly as Naruto hushed and comforted the girl, rocking her slowly from side to side, glaring at Sasuke. As Megumi relaxed, the blond surprised Sasuke yet again by singing to her. _"And now the dead last is in my house, singing. I guess this is my life now. Wonderful."_

As he lowered the now-sleeping toddler onto her bed, the whiskered student gestured wildly. Despite his limited knowledge of 'hyperactive idiot' sign language, Sasuke got the gist and the two stepped out into the hall.

"First off, you can never tell anyone about me... singing, alright, teme? Second of all, what the hell was with that whole random knife attack shit? Third, where is the bathroom, cos I've been walking around like an idiot for ages..."

a quick bathroom break later

"Uzumaki. I want to apologise for attacking you earlier." "Nah, 'snot like ya actually hit me, right? Anyway, Rei-chan mentioned you get 'specially weird and aggressive when it comes to Megumi-chan. It's cool, dattebayo." Sasuke just stared. _"This guy can just shrug off something like that. He's either a lot braver or a lot stupider than I thought." _Watching the blond stroll back towards the staircase, he revised his opinion. _"Both. Definitely both."_

"Hey, Uzu- er, Naruto." he started again, determined to find out some information about his newest retainer. "Where'd you learn... that? The singing and rocking thing, I mean." "Tch, where do you think? The carers used to do that kinda stuff all the time for the little kids back in the orphanage. I figured it was worth a shot." Sasuke nodded thoughtfully as the shorter boy bounded downstairs again. _"You really are a mystery, Uzumaki."_

SCENE BREAK

"-and how did you get a zero? We covered half that stuff in our first year, for Log's sakes!" nagged Sasuke, much to the confusion of the assembled parents. The youngest clan head, willingly associating with the Demon Brat? Something was rotten in the Village of Konoha, clearly. The Orange Monster rolled his eyes and scoffed. "C'mon, you saw how often I turned up for the boring stuff like geography 'n' languages. Like it makes a difference." Several parents had to hide their smirks as Uchiha-sama swatted the Brat across the back of the head.

"Baka, if you want to be a ninja, you have to know that stuff. What'll happen if you go to spy on another village and screw up because you don't speak the language? Or if you can't even find the village in the first place? That's it, come on." The sight of the usually stoic boy dragging the troublemaker by the scruff of his neck was enough to break the facades of the parents as several of them openly smirked or sneered. "Leggo, teme!" "No, you are coming to the compound and you are going to learn all of this. I will not have you failing when you represent the Uchiha clan." It would be several hours before anyone realised what he meant. _"The Kyuubi Brat is part of the Uchiha clan?" _The Shinobi of the village had only one addendum to add. _"Oh, Shit."_

SCENE BREAK

"Come on, Uzumaki! Just read the damn page." groaned a vexed Sasuke. "You can't just drop everything and say 'I'm bored'. That's not how this works." Naruto, red-faced, slammed the book closed and stood up. "Damnit, teme! It's not even your problem, anyway! Just leave me alone!" he barked, before replacing himself with a chair and taking the opportunity to escape. Rei and Daiki slowly made their way out of the room as Sasuke tried to massage away the headache building up. "What is it, Neko?" he murmured, the ANBU sitting casually to one side.

"Nothing too important, Sasuke-san. But maybe you'd be as well off looking at the work he left behind, see if anything interesting is there." he said lightly. "Who knows? You might even learn something new." Sasuke nodded slowly, before opening the books Naruto had left. _"Right then, let's see just what the dead last knows." _Poring over the books, Sasuke found himself growing more and more frustrated. What was supposed to be a study of the Hokage mountain turned into a barely legible discussion of the 'awesomeness' of the Sandaime and Yondaime; his mathematical scores were all over the place, some near-perfect, some atrocious; worst of all was his spelling. Every other word was spelt phonetically. It was like he didn't even know what he was supposed to be doing half the time. And with that last thought, he finally realised the issue.

Knock, Knock. "Okay, hang on, Iruka-sensei, I'm coming." drawled Naruto as he opened the door to his apartment. "Wh- Teme? What are you doing here? Wait, how do you know where I live?" he asked, perplexed. Sasuke stared at him blankly. "You can't read." "W-what are you talking about?" "That's why you got a zero for the test this morning. That's why your record is so spotty at the academy. How have you been in the academy for three years and not learned how to read?" Again, Naruto's body language shifted, from wary confidence to complete dejection.

"You're half-right, teme. I-I can't read too well. I mean, I know basic stuff, like my name, the alphabet, but... nobody ever tried to teach me. In the orphanage, they had a ton of kids, 'n' I was kinda ignored. By the time I got to the academy, I just assumed everyone was the same way and that I could learn how there. And I figured I'd at least be able to do the number stuff, but they had all word problems and I couldn't follow it and..." the boy was babbling now, taking advantage of a captive audience, probably the first time he'd explained all this to anyone. "...and Iruka-sensei thinks I'm just not trying and I don't wanna let Jiji down and..." "Okay, okay, Naruto- Naruto, breathe." Sasuke offered, trying to calm the now hyperventilating blond. "Listen, we both saw that I'm not exactly... keyed for teaching. If you trust me, I can find someone to help." The shorter boy breathed deeply, staring at him. "...you won't tell people, will you?" he pleaded, looking so small and innocent that betraying him would feel somewhat like kicking an especially cute puppy.

"No, not unless I absolutely have to." Sasuke offered, being rewarded with a small smile. "Okay, I'll sort something out and talk to you tomorrow." The boy nodded, hesitating before he shut the door. The Uchiha turned to leave, thoughts running through his head. _"Now, who to find..."_

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke glanced around the class, weighing up the pros and cons of each classmate. Iruka-sensei was out, since Naruto didn't want to admit his failing there. Mizuki-sensei was more of a 'learning by doing kind of guy', so he was out. Most of the other teachers were in the 'hates Naruto for no reason group', no help there. Besides, the guy could likely benefit from spending time with his classmates. Most civilian kids were out for the same reason as the teachers. On to the clan kids. Aburame Shino was too much an introvert, and his speech pattern would get on the blond's nerves. Inuzuka Kiba, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji were almost as bad at classwork as Naruto. Yamanaka Ino, zero patience. That left only one person.

Sidling into a seat at the back of the class, he turned to his intended target. "Hyuuga-san? I'd like your help with something."

Chapter 5 done! Yay!

Really happy to have passed 10'000 words. Also really happy to reach 10 reviews. I love you, people of the internet.

Anyway, confused? Happy? Angry? Let me know!


	7. Living

Okay, to chapter 6. This is gonna be another filler-esque chapter, just to give an idea of what goes on before we get to the start of the canon storyline.

BTW, I believe I promised a list of the Uchiha survivors. To be perfectly honest, most of them won't have massive roles in the story, mainly 'cause of how many characters already exist in canon, who I feel like I have to keep track of.

key; Name, current age, notes, goals, etc.

Sasuke, 10, de facto clan head. Sharingan awakened age 9. You know who this one is. Wants to become a hunter-nin/ANBU and avenge his family.  
Rei, 8, unofficial clan heiress and Sasuke's 2nd in command. Wants to become Konoha's premier kunoichi and prove herself to her peers.  
Daiki, 8, academy student (not in Rei's class). Wants to become a swordmaster.  
Mari, 7, academy student. Wants to become a medic.  
Kenta, 7, academy student. Adopted by Uchiha Masaki. Birth parents unknown. Wants to know where he came from.  
Nene and Zanji, 6, twins, academy students. No goals set as of yet.  
Anzu, 5, entering academy. No goals set.  
Takuya, 4. No goals set.  
Megumi, 2. Named by Sasuke on the night of the massacre. Birth name Miki. No goals set.

Anyways, let's go. To the story!

Sasuke blinked twice, his Sharingan taking a snapsot of the darkened room. The plan hinged on the element of surprise, and it was his duty to ensure the target reached the ambush point. His gaze flicked around the room, lingering wherever he knew one of his co-conspirators was concealed. Bored with the wait, he let his mind wander. He frowned when he realised his thoughts were all relating to his clan retainer. The boy was constantly surprising Sasuke, which was... uncomfortable at times, reminding him that he'd essentially adopted a complete unknown into his clan.

(flashback)

_**"Seriously, Sasuke, you can't tell me it's important to know all the layers of rock below the Hokage monument." grunted Naruto as he attempted to escape the academy via a window. The Uchiha rolled his eyes, arms crossed. "I didn't say it was. I said you shouldn't skip class. It's only a month until the end of the year, dobe. You of all people can't afford to miss out on any more lessons." "Hey! I beat Kiba and Shikamaru on the test yesterday!" "Yes. You must be so proud to beat the guy who slept through most of the test and the guy who got into a fight with his dog." Naruto sucked in his gut as he squeezed through the open window. Landing softly on the ground outside, he turned back to his sarcastic companion.**_

_**"Hey! Don't talk about my friends like that!" Sasuke raised a brow in question. "Don't gimme that look, teme! They are so my friends!" The silence continued, mocking him. "I'll prove it! Come on! 'Snot like anyone's gonna punish ya for missing one class." Sasuke glanced at the clock across from him. The hell with it, he might as well see what the big deal was...**_

_**SCENE BREAK (but still in a flashback)**_

_**"...guys?" piped up Naruto as the five boys lay back on the grass. Apparently, Chouji, Shikamaru and Kiba had also decided to break free of the 'tyranny' of the dreaded geology lecture. Sasuke grunted in response, while the Inuzuka was more vocal. "What is it this time, Uzu-baka?" he smirked. A pebble found its way to the brunette's forehead, much to Sasuke's amusement. "Shut it, Kiba! Now, as I was saying... I'm bored, guys."**_

_**"Seriously? You convince me to come all the way out here and now you're bored? Log-damnit, dobe." groaned Sasuke. "Well, what do you wanna do then, teme?" At this, the boy smirked and he stood up, moving into the basic stance of the Uchiha's Bojuken(intercepting fist), Sharingan active. "Bring it on. Taijutsu only. All of you against me." Naruto gritted his teeth. "Don't underestimate us, ya bastard!"**_

_**We draw a veil over the bloodless carnage. Long story short, the Sharingan wielder won.**_

_**"W-what the fuck?" gasped Kiba as Naruto attempted to extract himself from underneath an unconscious Chouji. "You weren't anywhere near this good a week ago." Sasuke grinned even as the sweat dripped from his face. "That's the power of the Sharingan. Nothing you losers did could surprise me." Kiba and Akamaru growled ferally as Shikamaru and Naruto managed to push their... big-boned ally off of the blond's legs. "Alright, let's go again, asshole! Akamaru, flank him!" "Wow. Your mastery of subtlety is astounding. How will I ever figure out your plan, you Machiavellian genius, you." came the deadpan response as the Uchiha threw the slightly taller boy off balanced with a well-aimed backhand, before jumping back to catch the white puppy by the scruff of the neck.**_

_**A flash of white to one side caught his attention. **"What? A bunshin?" **he thought absently as a second Akamaru leapt out at him from the side. **"No... that's a henge. But Kiba's right there..." **He glared at the snarling puppy for a second before smirking. "Give it up Uzumaki, I know it's you," he said confidently. "Nara wouldn't bother and the Akimichi's still unconscious." The puppy in front of him visibly sagged before disappearing in a puff of smoke. A lot of smoke, actually... oh, shit.**_

_**A fist erupted from the cloud, followed by the now-grinning blond. Sasuke ducked out of the way, only for the other hand to grab him by the collar. As he parried and blocked the other limbs belonging to the blond, he found himself growing frustrated at the iron grip on his shirt. "Get... off!" he grunted, grabbing the smaller boy by the wrists, before a burst of pain knocked him to the ground, clutching his bloody nose. Above him stood the blond, smiling widely even as he wiped the blood from his forehead. "I think that's my point, teme," he laughed. "Told you not to underestimate us."**_

_**Sasuke gave him a questioning look. "Us? You're the only one to do anything-" he cut himself off as he barrel rolled away from Kiba's lunge. "Okay, maybe I should have dealt with you a little more thoroughly." he grunted, kicking the Inuzuka in the gut and falling back slightly. He noted how the three other boys had taken wide stances, ready to block off any escape path. **"But then who's... FUCK!" **H****e realised their plan too late, as Chouji's arms locked him into place, trapping him. He slumped in defeat, cursing himself for getting so cocky.**_

_**"See? We are awesome! I knew we'd pull it off!" Naruto grinned, high-fiving the feral brunette as the Nara smirked. "Nice plan, Shikamaru! What works? Teamwork!"**_

(Non-flashback)

With no sign of the target, Sasuke moved towards the lookout's position. The young Hyuuga turned her gaze towards him and nodded gravely. Edging outside, he climbed up onto the roof for a better view. Carefully glancing around the streets, he made sure to keep out of sight of the mindless drones milling about in preparation for the night ahead. Hinata fell into step beside him. "Head straight on past the markets. The complex you're looking for is about two blocks north of main street." The boy nodded and dashed off, leaping from roof to roof with practiced ease. He glanced back at his co-conspirator, remembering how the Uzumaki had reacted to her being recruited for tutoring.

(Nother flashback)

_**"What made you decide to pick a Hyuuga as a teacher?" hissed the blond to his confused employer. "They hate me worse than the rest of Konoha!" Sasuke blinked. That was something he hadn't known. "Seriously? Why would you think she hates you?" The response was a deadpan glare. "Hell if I know. Same reason everyone else does, I guess. 'Prolly doesn't matter. I know for a fact she doesn't like me."**_

_**Sasuke stared openly. "...really. No, no, I want to hear how you came to this conclusion." Naruto rolled his eyes. "Here's what I know. Everybody agrees she's nice. Too nice to deliberately hurt anyone, right?" "Not seeing where you're going with this, dobe." **_

_**"Shut up, teme, I'm getting to that. Anyway, I know the rest of her clan hates me, and I'm not nive enough to think she's some kind of exception to that right off the bat..." "Wait, do you mean naive?" "Swear to Kami, teme, if you interrupt again... anyway, any time I try to talk to most of the civilians, they ignore me or... worse. Most of the clan kids are pretty much the same, 'cept you, Kiba, Shikamaru an' Chouji. But anytime I've tried to talk to her or whatever, she fakes being knocked out. Half the time, I get detention or some shit for it." he growled. Evidently, he wasn't quite as okay with his lot in life as the whole prankster schtick would suggest.**_

_**Sasuke fell quiet. It seemed he had more to correct Naruto on than just etiquette and ninjutsu. For all that the boy was extremely sociable, even the Uchihas knew more about people than he did. "Listen, she... just needs to get to know you?" he offered, wincing as the supposed comfort came out in the form of a question. "I mean, we weren't too fond of each other a couple weeks ago, and now I find your company extremely tolerable. Besides, any retainer of the clan needs to be able to interact with other noble clans." he concluded, the awkwardness of the situation getting to him. Naruto grinned before pouting as cutely as he could, arms outstretched for a hug.**_

_**"Oh Log no. Get away from me, Uzumaki!" he snapped, trying and failing to pull away from the embrace. "Come on, man, you know you love me!" The struggle continued for a few near-silent moments before Naruto let go. Jeez, the kid had one hell of a grip. "...I'll give Hinata-chan a chance. Only 'cause you trust her though. I know you're just tryna help, anyway, and I 'preciate it." he offered, leaving behind a surprised Sasuke. So, Naruto... actually trusted him. A fair bit, too, considering his reaction. Shaking his head, the young clan head followed after his... friend, just to check his choice of recruit was the correct one.**_

(Back to present-ish time)

Sasuke smirked as he considered how well Hinata had fit in to their routine. Having someone who needed her did wonders for the girl's confidence, even if she still passed out whenever she made physical contact with the object of her affections. In fact, one of the highlights of the last few weeks had been when Naruto was late to a tutoring session and Rei had burst in, demanding that the Hyuuga fight her for 'Naruto-kun's' love. The memory of both the Hyuuga heiress fainting and one of the ANBU choking on his own tongue was one of the few things guaranteed to set him smiling.

Landing on the balcony of his intended target, he knocked on the door roughly. A sleepy blond appeared at the door, gazing blankly at him. "You do know that's not exactly the visitor's entrance, don't you, teme? I think all the ANBU are screwing with your idea of normal." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Listen up, dobe. The kids're going crazy over having to stay in the compound. I told them I'd go find their favourite entertainment, and here I am." Another vaguely annoyed look was his only reward.

"Fuck you, teme. Gimme a minute to get dressed an' I'll head up to the roof." sighed the blond. Sasuke nodded, climbing up the fire escape to reach the proposed meeting point. The two of them leapt from building to building, Naruto's eyes narrowing suspiciously as he noticed the conspicuously darkened home of the clan head. "What's going on, teme? It's not even sundown, why're all the blinds shut?" "No idea, but for what it's worth, I'm blaming Rei." Naruto blinked, heading hesitantly towards the door. He gripped the handle tightly, bursting forwards into the hall.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NARUTO!" cheered a chorus of voices. The Uchiha kids were swarming him, chattering excitedly, while his academy peers stood a little further back, all having smiles of different sizes on their faces. Behind them stood the Ichirakus, along with Iruka and several of the ANBU. Naruto could only stare dumbly, before a hand clapped itself on his shoulder. He turned to see the smiling face of the Sandaime. All of his precious people together in one place, all of them there for him, proved to be too much for the boy. He looked down at the floor, wet tracks running down his face and dripping onto the floor. And not one person present thought any worse of him for it.

Sasuke patted him on the back. "Come on, let's go before the chibis tear your cake apart completely. Or Chouji for that matter." he chuckled. The new ten-year-old smiled gratefully at his best friend before grinning widely at the assembled guests. "YEAH! Let's do this!" he whooped, charging ahead.

SCENE BREAK

Itachi had a small, wistful smile on his face as he looked down at the small party in his former home, all of whom were completely ignoring the noise and light of the Kyuubi festival. _"That's what I'm fighting for. Those children are the future of the Uchiha clan. Madara or no, I won't let you hurt them." _He stared down at the... liberated Bingo Book in his hand. _"As good a place to start as any... now who should I find first? Hmm, promising, but no. Looks like I'll have to use **his **networks if I want to find someone..."_ Had anyone been looking, they would have seen a shadowed figure seemingly transform into a rapidly dis[ersing flock of crows. No-one knew, however, that he had been there. Itachi much preferred it that way - far less violence in the long run.

Chapter done.

Wow, this just did not want to be written. Seriously.

Anyway, just be sure to tell me everything you loved and hated. Cheers, guys!


	8. Failure

On to chapter 7! First off, though, I work in a hotel, and the hours I have wreak holy hell on my plans for writing, so if it takes me a while to update, I'm not ignoring you guys, just moppin' floors. Not much else to say, other than, I love the hell out of you people. As regards your questions:

MuffinMan9223; Ideally, I'd like to keep this going at least until the timeskip and hopefully well into the Shippuden timeframe. However, by the time we get to that point, I plan to have set roughly half of the canon plot thoroughly on its ear. Hehe.

Silvermane1; Naruto and Sasuke will likely come to some... interesting conclusions about Naruto's heritage. What exactly I'll do, I don't know yet, but I promise, Naruto will learn about the Uzumaki clan and Uzushiogakure. Pinky swear, you guys, I pinky swear.

(not on this site but you know who you are); The ANBU aren't acting as cold or professional as they would in canon, I agree. The reason for this is that their mission is to take proper care of these kids, not just guard them from physical threats. They also want the kids to grow up as healthy emotionally as is possible. If that means acting like a normal person instead of a soldier, that's what they'll do.

...

To the story!

A twelve (and a half) year old Naruto groaned and slumped in his seat as Iruka-sensei announced the final exam. _"Stupid Bunshin Jutsu. It sucks so damn much." _he huffed to himself as one by one, the class walked to the front of the class and created between one and three illusionary clones. He gave a half-hearted thumbs-up as his best friend passed him and strolled down towards the expectant teacher.

Despite his calm demeanour, Sasuke was worried. Naruto, despite his best efforts, was completely unable to create even a single functional Bunshin. Thanks to the changes in the grading system, it had gotten damn near impossible to pass without it. If their practice hadn't worked out the blond's issues in the last few weeks, all their planning would be for nothing.

(Flashback)

_**"I got it, Sasuke! I figured it out!" beamed the Uzumaki, waving around what appeared to be an official report. Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose, a habit he'd developed over time, which had not been helped by the blond's antics. The last time Naruto had 'figured something out', he'd used the Henge to... no, not thinking of that right now.**_

_**"What is it this time, Naruto?" he grunted, moving into a basic kata to burn off his... frustration. Yes, frustration, nothing else. The grin on his retainer's face grew even wider, threatening to split his face in two.**_

_**"I know how we can get on the same team! See, if the team isn't put together for anythin' specific, like tracking or capturing or stuff like that, they put them together based on their scores. Since you're obviously gonna be the top student, all I have to do is drop down to last place an' then they'll put us on the same team!" beamed the boy, happy that he'd found a way to rig the placements. Sasuke was less than elated.**_

_**"You're going to completely waste all the effort you've been putting in this year? Why? You're finally starting to pass consistently. Besides, Iruka-sensei isn't gonna be happy about you going back to being the dead-last." The blond's face fell and he sighed.**_

_**"I know that, but... this is the only way I can think of to be guaranteed a chance to help you someday, the way you guys helped me. Besides, I'll just have to make it up to him once I'm Hokage, 'ttebayo!" he smirked before realising his verbal tic. "Damn, I thought I'd got over that..."**_

(Flashback over)

Sasuke came back to reality as Naruto's attempt produced a small swarm of stumbling, barely-there clones, which dispelled almost instantly. Sad as it was to admit, that was a sustantial improvement on the Uzumaki's original tries at the technique. For one thing, these ones were in colour. The improvement was mostly a result of the shy, pale-eyed girl sitting to his left. Using her bloodline, she had discovered that Naruto, the supposed dead-last, had more chakra at his disposal than the rest of the students in their year combined. Sasuke would have been jealous, but considering the trade-off in control... not worth it. At least they'd got something useful out of the attempts to improve on that issue.

Both of them, as well as Hinata, could by now be considered proficient with the tree-walking technique, though not even the Hyuuga had completed the next step, walking on water, at least not yet, he amended. Once Naruto had learnt of the girl's confidence issues, he had taken it as his personal mission to bouy her self-esteem, not to mention somehow getting the kids in on it.

Speaking of the blond, he had endured Iruka's I'm-not-angry-just disappointed-and-frustrated lecture in silence, unnerving most of the class who knew the guy only by his larger than life Prankster King persona. Enough was enough, however, and failing the genin test -_just barely- _ was obviously Naruto's breaking point. Instead of returning to his seat, he turned tail and ran, fleeing the academy. Iruka stood up, ready to go after his wayward student, but Mizuki placed a hand on his shoulder and readied himself to leave. Curious, Sasuke flicked the Sharingan on with practiced ease, reading his teacher's lips.

_'You stay here, Iruka. After that, he mightn't want to talk to you. Don't worry, I can handle it.' _he had said, before disappearing in a Shunshin.

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke, though he would vigorously deny it if asked, was worried about Naruto. Normally, the blond would meet Sasuke and the rest of the clan outside the academy at the end of the day, prattle on about various subjects and then follow them back to the compound, where he had eventually been given a room of his own, even if he still went back to his apartment every other day. The kids were worried too, even Megumi-chan, who was looking around from her position on Neko's shoulder for any sign of 'Naru-nii'. Sasuke said all the right things; it's been a tough few days, he just needs a little while, yadda yadda. By the end, the kids felt a bit better, and Sasuke felt like a complete heel for lying to his family. Fan-tucking-fastic.

Hinata was even more worried. She'd met with Kiba-kun outside and they'd tried to find Naruto-kun, to no avail. The trail had already gone cold by the time lessons were over and Naruto's incredibly bright chakra was nowhere in sight. She'd led Kiba on a search of all the blond's usual haunts, from Ichiraku's to the Hokage monument. As dusk fell and she returned home from her search, she gazed out towards the forest on the village border. _"Naruto-kun, please... be safe."_

Iruka was close to panic. Not only had Naruto vanished, but Mizuki was nowhere to be found either. If it weren't for the fact that the Hokage seemed relaxed, he'd be out searching for the blond. He felt sorry for his favourite pupil. Without the clone technique, or becoming an apprentice like Rock Lee had last year, there was no way for the kid to pass. Thinking on apprenticeships led him to a certain piece of paperwork he'd been dutifully avoiding. The plan forming in his mind was reckless, barely-formed, and less likely to work than a Konoha-Iwa alliance. Naruto would approve, he mused, as he put brush to paper.

SCENE BREAK (skimming the theft of the scroll, as it basically went as canon)

Naruto gasped for air as he fell to the grass, a wide grin plastered on his face. He'd done it! He'd mastered a technique from the Hokage's Forbidden Scroll! Now he'd be able to pass and become a real shinobi! Nothing could ruin this! He kept smiling as he sat up, unable to get rid of the childish grin.

A foot to his face rapidly cleared up that problem for him. Naruto found himself looking at the enraged face of Sasuke. Just as he was about to argue with his best friend over the proper way to begin a conversation, Sasuke opened his mouth.

"ARE YOU FUCKING RETARDED, UZUMAKI?! WHAT POSSESSED YOU TO STEAL THE LOG-DAMNED FORBIDDEN SCROLL? YOU BETTER HOPE THE ANBU KILL YOU BEFORE I DO!" he roared, now clutching his retainer by the collar and shaking him fiercely. It was at this moment that Iruka found them in the clearing, pushing them apart before the Sharingan wielder could strangle the shorter boy.

"NARUTO! Why did you steal this scroll? That could be considered an act of treason!" he barked, holding Sasuke by the scruff of his shirt. Naruto paled. With plans of running the village someday, he knew the punishment for treason usually started with execution and worked its way from there.

"B-but Mizuki-sensei said that..." he began, before his eyes widened. All three came to the same conclusion at the same time. Sasuke dropped to the ground and knocked the Uzumaki to the ground as a swarm of kunai passed overhead. Mizuki stood on a branch above, Fuma Shuriken strapped to his back. "You know, Iruka, I'm glad you're here. It'll look so much better afterwards; how two humble teachers fought valiantly to protect their students, one of them dying tragically in the process." he sneered, posture completely relaxed.

"Naruto. You and Sasuke take the scroll back to the tower. I can handle Mizuki, but you can't let him get his hands on that scroll." Iruka bit tersely, slipping into his taijutsu stance. He ducked out of the way of another barrage of kunai as the boys picked themselves up and grabbed the scroll.

"Oh, come on, Iruka. Don't you think this is a good opportunity? I mean, the boy should know why he's hated." Oh, balls. That was probably the one thing that could keep the boy present. Fuck.

"W-why? Why do they hate me?" whispered the boy, now blatantly ignoring Sasuke's attempts to drag him away. This was his chance, his chance to learn what the village had against him. Just to know _why._

"Well, you see, twelve years ago, the Yondaime gave his life fighting to protect the village-" Here Mizuki casually dodged a water projectile courtesy of Iruka. "How rude. Perhaps you should take it easy. Kazuya!" At his call, a scarred, heavy-set man shimmered into view, slamming the scarred teacher face-first into the dirt. He snarled savagely at the two boys as Mizuki continued.

"As I was saying, the Yondaime sacrificed himself to beat the Kyuubi. But even he couldn't kill it. Instead, he sealed the monster away, turning it into a child. You, Naruto, are the Kyuubi, THE MONSTER WHO DESTROYED THE VILLAGE AND KILLED HUNDREDS! YOU ARE THE DEMON WHO KILLED IRUKA'S PARENTS!" he roared, throwing an oversized shuriken at the now-frozen blond.

A blur flew through the air, pinning the blade to the ground. A dirt-covered Iruka stood in front of the boys, glancing back at Naruto, who flinched before bolting, the scroll now clutched in his hands. Iruka groaned and turned towards Sasuke, though his eyes. "Uchiha-san," he began, surprising the boy with the formal tone. "You need to go after Naruto, then find the ANBU. I can hold these two off for a while." Sasuke nodded hesitantly, taking to the trees in an attempt to find the fleeing Uzumaki.

"Damnit Kazuya, you can't even hold down this guy? Why the hell did the boss even send you?" Mizuki scoffed, rolling his eyes at the other man, who was clutching at a bloody nose. The silver-haired traitor nodded after the fleeing boys. "Go fetch. I've got some stuff to work out with my old friend here." Kazuya nodded, taking off at high speed across the ground, as the two teachers squared off. _"Damn. Just hold out, boys. Nobody hurts one of my students and gets away with it!" _Iruka thought deperately, rushing forwards to engage his opponent.

...

And that's that chapter done!

Figured it would be better not to leave you guys hanging for too long. Sorry about the wait!

Anyway, Questions? Suggestions? Indigestions? Other types of estions? Let me know!


	9. Confrontations

You know, I started this with a vague idea of what was coming, but I never imagined that I'd get this kind of response. You guys really cheer me up. By the way, there's a poll up on my profile that pertains to this story. Check it out if you want some input.

Also, anyone care to guess at what Iruka's secret plan is? Anyone who guesses correctly gets ten point in this points system that I just now came up with. Anyone who guesses wrong gets one point, so no-one comes out any worse off!

Now, your questions, vaguely answered:

princessbinas; Don't worry, Sakura's coming soon. We'll also see how she's been affected by Naruto and the Uchiha clan being closer.

...

Story time!

Naruto stumbled, nearly dropping the scroll in his panic. Finally, he found a hollow in one of the trees and wedged himself in, breathing ragged. _'Oh, kami... it makes sense... that's why they all hate me... I'm the D-Demon that killed the Yondaime... killed Iruka-sensei's parents... Jiji's wife... I'm a monster...' _he thought desperately, clutching the side of his head as tears streamed down his cheeks, following the strange whisker marks on each side. The Forbidden Scroll lay by his side, almost forgotten.

Naruto stared at his shaking hands, unable to shake the visions of _blood pain death despair- _he shook his head fiercely, trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head, deeper than his own. '**That's right... you're the monster they always said you were... now it's time to show them what monsters do... time to make them pay for hurting you...'** _'N-no, I d-don't want to hurt anyone... I don't want to hurt the people who are important to me. I won't!'_

Sasuke followed the trail of broken branches, scanning the forest with red, two-tomoe eyes for any sign of the blond. "Naruto! Where the hell are you?" _'Damn, it makes too much sense, but... Naruto? Why would he pick Naruto? Wait... tenth of October... Yondaime-sama just took the first newborn he found. Damnit Naruto, don't you dare believe that asshole!'_

Naruto's breath hitched as he heard the voice of his friend/employer. "Where are you? We need to bring back the scroll before things get worse! Iruka-sensei's fighting off those guys right now so we can get back to the tower! For fuck's sake, get out here and answer me!" growled Sasuke, who was most assuredly _not _worried, merely _concerned _about his retainer. Hearing a stifled sob, he moved to follow it, before a stocky wall of muscle intercepted him bodily, driving him to the forest floor. Mizuki's scarred accomplice, whatever his name was, slammed a fist into the ground as he landed heavily in front of the boy.

"You go no further, Uchiha. I owe you and the Kyuubi brat for what happened to my brother. Because of you two and some ANBU bastard, I have no one left." he rumbled deeply, eyes filled with hatred. Sasuke fell into a well-practiced stance, ready to move at a split-second's notice. The other man clenched his fists, standing like a boxer.

A fist tore through the air next to where Sasuke had been standing, lodging itself in a tree before the owner ripped it out, sending bark splintering everywhere. Sasuke gaped openly, very aware of how close a call that had been.

_'If I hadn't had the Sharingan active, I'd be dead meat right now. How can someone that big move that fast?' _he wondered, torn between horror and a bizarre respect for the man. Speaking of which...

"You seem surprised, Uchiha. My brother never awoke our family's kekkei genkai, the Swift Release," muttered the enemy as he readied himself for another rush. "This is the technique that can split a stone wall. Shinsoku Satto!" he declared, this time managing to clip Sasuke, sending him sprawling from a fraction of a second's contact. Sasuke rolled into a crouch, ready to spring away from the next pass just as soon as his opponent readied his chakra. This was one fight he'd have to view tactically...

SCENE BREAK

Iruka reeled backwards, clutching a jaw that was threatening to bruise up nicely. Mizuki chuckled, palming a kunai and lunging forwards. "Poor Iruka. All these years, sitting behind a desk, grading papers and handing out missions? You've gone soft on me. To think, I was actually worried about this fight for a minute. Just leave Kazuya to deal with the brats, and I'll-Oof!" he grunted as Iruka's knee shot upwards into the traitor's gut. The scarred Chuunin called up a swarm of clones as a distraction, striking randomly at Mizuki through the intangible copies.

"Let's get a few things straight. First, your friend won't kill the boys. Those two managed to fight a missing-nin off long enough for ANBU to arrive, when they were both _nine_. Second, the shinobi forces are combing the whole village right now. There's no way in hell you'll even get within arm's reach of the scroll. And finally," he grinned, bringing his hands together in a tiger seal. Mizuki blinked, before hearing a hissing coming from his back. Cursing, he barely managed to tear off his flak jacket before the attached seal detonated. However, he found himself flying backwards, courtesy of the second tag at his feet. The silver-haired shinobi winced as he climbed back to his feet, staring at his former co-worker.

Iruka allowed himself a distinctly Uchiha-esque smirk before finishing his statement. "You decided to pick a fight with the man who used to be known as Konoha's Prankster Prince." Despite his outward confidence, Iruka couldn't help feeling worried for his students. _'You two... Please, just hold out a little longer!'_

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke's plan to fight tactically was going poorly. The biggest problem with planning out a fight in advance was time. Normally, the Sharingan covered for that problem, enhancing the wielder's perception and thinking speeds to levels beyond even those of most shinobi. However, as the dark-haired boy was learning, the ability to think quickly meant little when your opponent moved even faster. So far, the only weakness he'd observed was that the movement was only in a single direction. Unfortunately, that direction was usually the one he was in.

"Don't tell me the Uchiha clan head is this easy to defeat?" After being knocked around like a pinball, Sasuke's patience was reaching its limits. Having to deal with Naruto's apparent treason had brought him close to the breaking point already, and like any twelve year old, he occasionally said the wrong thing when aggravated.

"Your brother didn't find it too easy," he began, before realising his mistake when a hand clamped itself around his head and started squeezing. The scarred man-mountain growled savagely, ignoring Sasuke's muttered grunts of pain.

"You just made your last mistake, you little shit. First, I'm going to kill you, then the Jinchuuriki, then I'll make sure to finish the job your brother started." Sasuke was barely aware of what the man was saying, more concerned with clawing at the crushing grip on his skull. As his vision darkened, he felt something both familiar and horrifying. A scarlet blur knocked his attacker to the ground. Sasuke backed away as he stared, sharingan deactivated, at the form of Uzumaki Naruto, crouched on all fours, as a shroud of red chakra surrounded him. The _thing _that his friend had become stared hungrily at the man in front of him.

**"You want to kill someone? Why don't you try ME!"**

SCENE BREAK

The Sandaime flinched and refocused his crystal ball to scan the forest, while surreptitiously alerting the ANBU hidden in the room. If the seal were weakening, they needed Jiraiya back yesterday. While the Professor was no slouch with sealing, only Konoha's Toad Sage could fully understand the work of the Yondaime.

_'Naruto, what is happening to you?'_

SCENE BREAK

Mizuki flinched at the feel of the yokai spreading through the forest. Iruka managed to fare slightly better, only twitching slightly as he prepared his attack. "Suiton: Mizukachi!" barked the scarred chuunin as he expelled a mass of water, which formed a large cylinder to try and crush his opponent. Mizuki roared and charged forwards, splitting the water with his last fuma shuriken.

"Damnit Iruka! I was right! That little bastard's going to release his seal and kill us all! Why the hell won't you listen to reason?"

"And let me guess, reason is the name of your fist, right? You're wrong anyway. Naruto wouldn't release the seal. No way in hell. He might not be the best student in the world, but he loves Konoha." Iruka grunted, converting his last attack into a trio of water clones to pin his former friend. He closed the gap and punctuated his statement with all-out strikes.

"That's why! Uzumaki Naruto! Will! Become! HOKAGE!" With a final blow to his neck, Mizuki was down and unconscious. Iruka made sure to tie the bastard tight with ninja wire before allowing himself a chance to slump against a nearby building, abandoned from the looks of it. Cursing himself for wasting so much chakra, he forced himself to climb up to the branches, before rushing towards the distant sounds of the other fight.

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke sprinted up to the branches overhead as Naruto continued grappling with the enemy, actually climbing on the man as he clawed and bit like an animal. Sasuke was so engrossed in the fight that he found himself taken completely by surprise when a hand touched his shoulder. He whirled round, Sharingan spinning, kunai in hand, to see... a second Naruto? And a third? Wait, what?

"No time to explain, Sasuke. You have any ninja wire?" hissed the first one, taking the offered wire and passing one end to his companion. He held up a hand to silence the Uchiha before he could ask any more questions. "Trust me, teme. I've got a plan. For now, I'm Narutwo and he's Naruthree. Now, listen carefully, here's the plan..."

Naruto the First was only peripherally aware of his allies' planning, instead being intently focused on his prey. **'****Good. Make him pay. Show him your power and then show this pathetic village why exactly they should fear you!' **A twisted, feral grin threatened to split the boy's face as he slammed a smoke bomb directly into the man's face, before getting backhanded away, the bulk of his cloak being dispersed from the blow. Shaking his head to try to ignore the voice, he took to the trees, where his clones were waiting, being caught unawares by a hand clutching his collar and wrenching him up onto a branch.

"For Log's sakes, Naruto! Why'd you run off like that?" barked Sasuke, shoving the smaller boy against the tree trunk. Whatever reaction he'd expected, however, the blond flinching and withdrawing into himself was not one of them. Gritting his teeth, he attempted to pull Naruto to his feet, only to get pushed back as the Uzumaki scrambled away, stammering.

"D-don't! I-I don't want..." he babbled, clutching the trunk. "I don't wanna hurt you! I don't wanna hurt anybody! Get away before something happens!" he half-sobbed, half-yelled. Sasuke found himself clenching a fist. "Naruto," he began, making sure to keep his voice even, before catching the blond full in the face with a right cross.

"What the FUCK makes you say that? Hurt me? When we fight, you can't even touch me!" he roared. "I don't give a crap whether you've got the Kyuubi sealed inside you! You're still the same moron who pulls pranks instead of studying; the kid who worships ramen and orange! You're still the same idiot who took on a chuunin when he couldn't even throw a kunai straight. The same guy who saved my cousin and me from getting kidnapped or worse." Naruto's face had an unreadable expression on it, as Sasuke continued in a more subdued tone.

"Even if you _were _a demon, I wouldn't care. Neither would Rei, or Iruka, Hokage-sama, or anybody who matters. You're still Uzumaki Naruto, retainer of the Uchiha clan and..." Sasuke stared Naruto in the eye. "You're still my best friend. Now, let's show this guy what happens when you threaten the Uchiha." he smirked, noting that Naruto was once again standing straight, ignoring the wet trails on the blond's cheeks.

"Y-you'd best leave him to me. Wouldn't want the great Uchiha clan head to dirty his hands on such an unworthy opponent, eh?" whispered the blond as their enemy burst through the branches ahead. Naruto grinned as he formed a cross-shaped hand seal.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" The world shimmered and turned orange, dozens of blue-eyed copies dog-piling their opponent. "Sasuke! Fireball now!" Sasuke complied, though he could see himself doing much more harm than good, what with the scarred man being safely encapsulated in a ball of clones. He felt vindicated as a mildly singed missing-nin burst out of the smoke. He glanced over to see Naruto smirk, arms folded.

"Now you both die, brats! Shinsoku Satto!" To anyone watching the fight, the man seemed to blur before collapsing in shock at Naruto's feet, one leg and one arm neatly severed. "H-how?" Sasuke had to ask. Naruto rubbed the back of his head and plucked at the air, a metal wire vibrating from the act.

"I figured, if you're going that fast, it'll be even harder to see stuff like wire, right? I mean," he trailed off, looking queasy at the blood spatter on the forest floor. "I kinda thought he'd just get wrapped up in it, not... this..."

"That's more thought than I expected from you, Naruto." came a voice. Naruto's eyes widened. "Iruka-sensei! You won!" Iruka stared at the two boys, a stern expression on his face. "I mean, after stealing the forbidden scroll, running off like that... Naruto, close your eyes." Naruto did so, face falling, before he felt a weight on his head. Opening his eyes, he saw a grinning Iruka, with no hitae-ate. Putting a hand to his forehead, Naruto could feel the cold, polished metal.

"No-one can deny after tonight that you deserve to be a shinobi. Congratulations, Naruto." The blond's composure collapsed, and he caught his teacher in a flying hug. Sasuke just shook his head and chuckled. Maybe the blond was an idiot, but the fact of the matter was, there was no-one Sasuke would rather work with. At least until Naruto smacked him across the back of the head, declaring that "Now we're even, asshole!"

SCENE BREAK

Itachi, disguised as an unassuming farm worker, sat calmly at the bar and ordered two sake, 'one for the road to Konoha'. At the signal, the man he'd been waiting to see sat down next to him, white hair hanging in a wild mane.

"Didn't think you'd actually show." muttered Jiraiya. The Uchiha may have been loyal to Konoha, but he was still creepy as hell.

"I need the information we talked about. The plan is being accelerated even more than we'd anticipated. Just give me the directions and we can go our separate ways, Jiraiya-sama." Not too great at small talk, either.

"The first one you're looking for is in Ishi no Kuni. It's just out of the way enough for what you have planned, too. For what it's worth, good luck. You'll need it." Jiraiya sipped his own drink as Itachi walked out, his own untouched. Pity. The sake was actually very good here.

...

Done!

Jutsu;

Suiton; Mizukachi/ Water release; Water Hammer/ C/ A large body of water is expelled or manipulated by the user, in order to bludgeon or possibly even crush one's opponent.

Shinsoku Satto/ Swift Dash/ C or B/ Using the Swift Release bloodline, the user charges the opponent at exceptional speed with enough force to break stone.

R&R, guys!


	10. Waiting

'Sup guys. Filler time! Would it really be Naruto without some? Not much else to say on my end, other than thanks for making this so much easier to write. Leave someone a review today, even only to say 'good job'.

Also, no-one seems to have any idea what Iruka's planning? Like, not even a guess? Huh.

To questions:

somilmish: The ANBU split up to watch the chibis. Boar was meant to be watching Sasuke and Rei, but he got kinda... sword-ed, and anyone extra was dealt with by the infiltrator, mostly via genjutsu. Also, ohmygodhowdidInotseeReiasChibiMikotothatisnowcanon! Well, fanon...

Poll is still open, and will be 'til the Wave Country stuff starts.

STORYTIME!

...

Naruto slumped back in his seat, pulling out a book from one of his many pockets. Flipping through the pages to find his place, he dutifully ignored the stares from the rest of the class. In their defence, though, this was _Naruto. _Being _quiet. Reading. And not even orange anymore. _The boy was wearing a black and grey version of his old jumpsuit, jacket open over a blue shirt. A white spiral was sown onto the left shoulder. The blond sighed irritably as several students attempted tp dispel the genjutsu that had to be there.

"Haven't you read that about a dozen times?" asked a smirking Sasuke as he took the seat next to his best friend, officially, too, thanks to the fight in the forest a few days previous. He too was flipping through pages, in what some would recognise as Konoha's Bingo Book. Naruto glanced up at him with a grin before speaking.

"Come on, it's a good story. The main character is a totally awesome shinobi, too!" Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You just think that because you've got the same name as him. He's kind of an idiot, really, so I can see why you identify with him."

"Ha-fucking-ha. You missed your calling as a comedian, you know that? Anyway, let's get some practice in before Iruka-sensei turns up." grunted the blond, taking the bingo book and flipping through it at random. "Say when, teme. Standard rules, random choice, only known abilities..."

"Hey, Uzubaka!" called one of the civilian-born graduates. "What the hell're you doing here? This' for graduates only, brat!" In response, Naruto jabbed the hitae-ate wrapped around his forehead. "Get your eyes checked, asshole. I did some extra credit to pass, so you can just fuck right off." As he spoke, he slammed the book open on the desk.

"Hell yes! Momochi Zabuza, Demon of Kirigakure! Beat that, Sasuke!" The dark-haired boy grunted, taking back the book and smirking. "How about Baki of Sunagakure?" Naruto groaned. "Perfect. Fuuton mastery to counter Kirigakure no Jutsu and Silent Killing, eh? Bastard..."

"What are you two doing?" moaned Shikamaru from the next row up. Naruto blinked and looked up at the Nara. "Bingo Book Death Battles." he offered, acting as thought that was a well reasoned and perfectly valid answer. Sasuke smacked him upside the head and turned to the shadow user.

"You pick a shinobi at random, and then simulate a fight between them. Why, you want in?" he smirked, offering the book. Shikamaru flipped it open, eyes closed, before looking down and giving a wry smile. "Would you look at that?" he murmured. "Guess I'm pretty lucky, eh?" he chuckled, showing the page.

"Fuck no. No way in hell did you get Hokage-jiji for this, try again." accused Naruto as he was accosted by Kiba, who stood with a tanto strapped to his back. "Come on, chibi! Let the man play! You two could stand to get knocked down a few pegs!" "Don't call me chibi, you sonofabitch!" "Don't you talk about my mother like that!"

THUD!THUD! The two boys were left rubbing their heads on the floor, courtesy of one Haruno Sakura. "Quiet down, you idiots! Can't you see you're annoying Sasuke-kun?" she shrieked, before turning her attention towards her crush. Said unwilling object of desire placed a face in his hands and sighed. As though having fangirls wasn't enough of a curse in itself. No, Naruto had to go and make some of them _competent._

**(Flashback)**

**"Sasuke-kun! Would you like to go on a-" "No." Sakura slumped as her crush walked away. She pouted as the Uzubaka walked over to Sasuke-kun and started babbling on and on. She found several other members of Sasuke-kun's fanclub who were eager to commiserate, as the class split into two groups for taijutsu practice.**

**"And he's so loud and annoying! I don't know how Sasuke-kun can stand him!" she vented, receiving a round of approving nods. Only Ino-buta and Hinata avoided weighing in. "It's 'cause he's an orphan, you know? He's lucky, no parents on his case all the time, he can do whatever he wants-" SLAP! Sakura felt the pain blossoming and raised a shaking hand to her cheek, as the class, not to mention Mizuki and Iruka, stared blankly at the Hyuuga heiress.**

**"How d-dare you, Sakura-san. The pain of l-losing a parent is much worse than anything you've ever f-felt." Hinata declared, voice steadier than any of the class had ever heard from her. Sakura stared dumbly, before catching sight of the undiluted anger on her beloved's face. **(A/N: I feel really creepy talking about this 'beloved' stuff when the characters are like, ten Seriously, Kishimoto, WTF?) **Seeing the whole class turning against her, Sakura bolted, ignoring the wet trails dripping down her face. Making her way into the village, she found an empty playground. Crawling into a colourful painted tunnel, Sakura hugged her knees and let the tears fall.**

**"Sakura-chan?" came a voice, Sakura flinching as she saw Naruto at the tunnel entrance. "What is it, Uzumaki? Come to tell me what a h-horrible person I am?" Naruto simply crawled inside, sitting a few feet away. They sat in silence for several minutes before Naruto spoke up.**

**"What you said back there... that was really stupid, Sakura-chan," he stated bluntly, ignoring her staring at him. "I know you didn't mean it the way it sounded, but still... You heard about what happened to the Uchiha clan a couple years ago, right? Well, Sasuke and the rest of them nearly got split up over it, 'cept Hokage-jij-_sama_, sorry, he got it sorted out so they could stick together. You're really lucky, you know? You've still got a family to take care of you."**

**Sakura grimaced, having _Naruto _of all people explain how she'd been insensitive. "And now the whole class hates me, even Sasuke-kun..." Naruto grunted and shifted his position slightly.**

**"The class don't hate you, I mean, I don't hate you, and I don't think Hinata can hate anyone. Most of the others don't really care what you said. And Sasuke... Sakura-chan, if I'm honest, I don't think Sasuke really cares too much about anything you could have said," he held up his hands to cut her protests short. "Let me finish, okay? Sasuke isn't interested in _any _of the girls from our year. He doesn't talk about it much, but he doesn't just want some fangirl who'll do anything to get his attention. If you really want to impress him, you gotta be more serious about being a ninja. Show him how good you can be and not just how much you wanna date him. Am I making any kinda sense?"**

**Sakura nodded slowly, as the blond seemed to be getting more and more flustered the longer he spoke. "So, Sasuke-kun wants to be with a serious kunoichi, a strong kunoichi. If I get stronger, he'll notice me more. Is that what you're trying to say?" The Uzumaki grinned widely, nodding rapidly. "That's it! I'm not too good at explainin' myself sometimes. Come on, let's head back so you can show everyone the new, serious you 'ttebayo!"**

**Taking the offered hand and wiping her eyes, Sakura followed Naruto out of the tunnel. It was only as she was brushing the dirt off her new dress that something occured to her. "Hey, Naruto," she started, as the boy stretched out his arms. "How did you know where to find me, anyway?"**

**Naruto gave a small smile, half-turning away from her. "I know lots of hiding places around here. There's lots of places you can be alone in a big park like this." The grin was back in full force as he looked at her again. "Anyways, let's get back before Iruka-sensei has a fit!" Sakura giggled despite herself. She never stopped to realise that Naruto hadn't even tried to ask her for a date.**

**(Flashback **Over)_  
_

Sasuke grumbled into his hands as Yamanaka Ino, Sakura's Eternal Rival, began vying for the seat next to him as well. The two of them were now (arguably) decent shinobi, unlike the rest of his fanclub. Still annoying as all hell though. That was saying something, coming from someone who regularly dealt with a council of 'retired' shinobi and power-hungry civilians. At least now he could start moving closer to his eventual goal of resurrecting his clan.

Just as soon as Iruka-sensei showed up with the team assignments, anyway. Of all the days to be late...

SCENE BREAK

A significantly ruffled-looking Iruka burst into the academy, only to come face to face with an amused Sandaime. "Iruka-san, haven't you ever heard anything about running in the halls?" he smiled, chuckling as the younger man attempted to bow mid-step, only keeping his footing by virtue of years of training.

"Apologies, Hokage-sama. I've been, been trying to get the last of the paperwork in before this gets started." Iruka sputtered, an exhausted grin on his face as he straightened up, adjusting his new hitae-ate. The Sandaime waved him away, still smiling. "Better get in there, instead of talking to an old man. You don't want the children getting stir crazy," he laughed, walking past the scarred teacher. "Or worse, let the jounin get restless." Iruka paled at the implications, before rushing to the mercifully intact classroom.

"Alright, settle down. First, let me say I'm very proud of all of you for passing. From this moment on, you are all shinobi in service of Konoha. Do your best! Now, to team assignments. Team one..."

SCENE BREAK

Itachi squinted as the dust rose up in clouds. Cursing himself for overusing the Mangekyou, he scanned the area for any sign of chakra. There were definitely traces, criss-crossing the ground, almost like... like a log-damned net. Damn. He quickly replaced himself with a boulder as the chakra strings enveloped the area he'd been standing, before rolling to one side to avoid a barrage of shuriken.

"Zetsubo Deba," he called, announcing his position. ANBU training had left him with some old habits, it seemed. "I am here to make you an offer-" he started again, ducking under a blast of sharpened air. "-to join me in-" Kunai barrage. "-a group dedicated to-" Explosive tag. "-taking down members of Akats-" Wow. They'd probably see that one all the way back to Iwa. Itachi easily kept ahead of the attacks, eventually getting out the rest of his message"-To get your revenge against Akasuna no Sasori." Silence. Better.

A haze of chakra shimmered away to reveal a middle-aged man, face covered by a mask. Wearing a long jacket, hood up, open over the standard Sunagakure flak jacket. A scratched Suna hitae-ate hung around his neck and he held a trio of kunai in one hand. "Uchiha Itachi. What does the perpetrator of the so-called Uchiha Massacre gain from recruiting a humble ambush specialist such as myself?" Itachi deactivated his bloodline, staring at his potential ally with calculating onyx eyes.

"A secret weapon."

...

Chapter done.

Ech. to be honest, I'm not overly happy with this one. Just felt it had to be put out there before we start getting into the kids' adventures as Genin. Teams are deliberately being left until next time, because I can promise at least one change to the standard roster.

Leave your reviews at the beep. BEEP!

...

Bye!


	11. Testing

Team assignments! Also, new Genin test! Looking forward to it? I know I am!

Now, question time;

princessbinas: Ishi no Kuni is the country separating Wind country (Kaze no Kuni) and Earth country (Tsuchi no Kuni). I figured I'd need somewhere for Itachi to start putting together his plans, and for this I picked a kind of 'no man's land'. Somewhere that the Five Great Villages would ignore to avoid heading towards another war. Also, Deidara? Practically a guarantee, once he actually leaves Iwa. I'm really going to enjoy making Itachi responsible for everybody's favourite blond bomber. Hehe.

...

Story time.

"...Team Seven will consist of Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura Haruno-" A joint cheer and groan interrupted Iruka, who found himself staring at a clan head attempting to sink into the ground without the aid of ninjutsu and a pinkette trying to glomp him. "...and... Uzumaki Naruto..." who was currently laughing his head off. "Back to business. Team Eight will be Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino, under Yuuhi Kurenai. Team Nine is still active, so Team Ten will consist of Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino, under Sarutobi Asuma."

Naruto glanced over at his new teammates, beaming as he leaned over to talk to Sasuke. "Looks like I was right, eh? And you said it'd never work." he whispered smugly. Sasuke rolled his eyes, one hand still trying to fend off his #1 fan (despite Ino's grab for the title). "Extenuating circumstances. You had to pull off some really unlikely shit back in the forest. The bet is null and void." Naruto stuck a tongue out in response, as Iruka finished announcing the last of the teams.

"Take an hour for lunch and then report back here to meet your Jounin sensei. Dismissed." concluded Iruka, his students dispersing. "Team Seven, wait here for just a few minutes." he hastily amended, seeing the two boys headed straight for the window, Sakura confusedly clutching a log. The three of them gathered in front of him, Naruto being the first to speak.

"What's up, Iruka-sensei? Is this something to do with the sensei you forgot to mention?" he asked, the picture of innocence. Iruka made note to check his desk for a special 'goodbye' prank, nodding in response.

"Yes, actually. You see, genin teams assigned here have to complete a final exam before officially becoming shinobi and being elligible for missions. In your case, your sensei has asked to begin your test today, instead of tomorrow, with the other students." he offered, rubbing the back of his head and smiling as their faces fell. _"Cue screaming in 3...2...1."_

"WHAT?!" chorused all three, aghast. "You mean we went through all that sh-" "-the _damned council _will take me by the b-" -we're already qualified for-" The three voices overlapped in mangled protests. Iruka pointedly stared at the clock, waiting for them to get it out of their systems. Although...

"Did I mention there's a time limit involved?" he smiled, somewhat evilly as they all stopped mid-rant. "Better. Now, as I was saying, you have until 8pm to complete your test." His expression grew more serious. "That gives you a little under six hours, after which you will fail and be sent back to the academy for a year's extra training." he continued, all three instantly shutting down at this bit of news.

"Wait, seriously, Iruka-sensei? Tell me you're joking. This-this is payback for the Oiroke no Jutsu, isn't it?" Iruka shook his head, trying not to think too hard about that particular instance. "I'm afraid not, Naruto. Now, the details of your test are in here," he said, handing a scroll to Sasuke. "Good luck." he offered before running through hand seals and vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Carefully, Sasuke unrolled it, noting the hokage's seal at the bottom, growling as he read further.

_"To my potential students,_

_Shinobi were originally trained as infiltrators and information gatherers rather than one-man armies. It was something that could be achieved without even the smallest measure of chakra. Any students of mine must be observant, intelligent and creative. To that end, your test is as follows;_

_Find out who I am._

_You can use any means or contacts at your disposal, aside from Umino-san or Hokage-sama, who already know me. I will not leave Konohagakure during this time. Your only clues; I know all three of you, your skills and connections and I had something of a reputation for vandalism before Uzumaki-san took my title. When you believe you have found me, report to me directly, as Team Seven._

_Good luck."_

Naruto gaped dumbly as Sasuke clenched his teeth and re-rolled the scroll detailing their 'mission', giving a voice to the team's collective opinion.

"Fucking asshole."

SCENE BREAK

2:02 pm, Konoha Shinobi Academy

The trio stood on the roof, making their plans. "So, we split up to cover more ground, Naruto provides clones for backup for each of us, and when we find the target, the clone breaks off to find the other two. Naruto clones should have a copy of the Bingo Book, but be careful with it. If we don't find anything by 5, meet back here to make a new plan." Sasuke concluded, Naruto nodding and Sakura looking confused.

"But aren't clones just illusions, Sasuke-kun?" The Uchiha groaned and looked at the girl. "Normally, yes, but Naruto has a technique to produce solid clones. Naruto?" The blond smirked, prducing a cloud of smoke that obscured the roof. When it cleared, three Sakuras and three Sasukes stood there, one of each looking confused. One of the Sasukes shrugged non-commitally.

"Let's face it, you're more likely to make a good impression on most people than I am, 'specially if we're looking for someone." he offered. Sasuke gritted his teeth, looking at the watch he'd... borrowed and deciding it wasn't worth getting into.

With a subtle nod to one another, the groups broke off, heading in three different directions.

2:45 pm, Konoha market street

"So you have no idea, then? No idea who it could be?" asked Sakura, making use of her parent's reputation to try and wheedle some answers out of the civilians running the market. The man standing behind the counter shrugged helplessly. "Sorry, but most of us don't really pay attention to the ninja side of things until we're hirng them. Except for those ones working at the academy or the tower or somewhere like that."

Dejectedly, Sakura and her personal Sasuke clone turned back, leaving the shop. What were the odds of finding their would-be sensei in a bookstore anyway, especially one with an ADULTS ONLY sign covering half its shelves?

3:34 pm, Hokage Tower

"Is there any way for us to check the records? See who Hokage-sama was talking to about the team assignments?" Sasuke asked, the Hokage's receptionist staring at him, brow arched. Sakura Clone squirmed uncomfortably under the woman's gaze.

"Why exactly do you need to know about the Hokage's private meetings?" she asked, a strange tone entering her voice. Something along the lines of 'answer incorrectly and you will hurt'; Sasuke could attest to that being a thing, as the son of the Military Police Chief. Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, before his companion piped up.

"Myself and Sasuke-kun got this note from our sensei and we need to get that information in order to become genin." she smiled sweetly, Sasuke growing more and more disturbed with how well his best friend could impersonate members of the opposite sex.

A smirk appeared on the older woman's face. "Ah, yes, so you're Team Seven, then." "Most of it," chirped Sakura Clone. "We just need to pass this and we'll be a team!" she squealed, Sasuke slowly edging away from the noise._  
_

The smirk was now a full-blown evil smile. "Ah, yes, Hokage-sama mentioned you would be coming and gave me some strict instructions, " she continued, dropping a scroll onto her desk, almost as large as the Forbidden Scroll. "This is all you'll be getting from us. This is the list of every shinobi to speak with the Hokage in the last forty-eight hours. I hope you're quick studies." she cackled, tossing the scroll to Sasuke, who nearly buckled under its weight.

As the prospective genin left, mumbling threats against herself, the Hokage and anyone else that came to mind, she calmly sipped her tea. _"That was far more fun than it had any right to be. I hope they pass, even the Uzumaki brat, little troublemaker. We were the same way once, eh, Mikoto, Kushina?"_

4:48 pm, Konoha Shinobi Library

Naruto (cunningly disguised as Sasuke, whose mannerisms he could perfectly copy) groaned and found himself clutching the bridge of his nose. This was so goddamned annoying! He could find the address of any civilian he wanted, but the whole secrecy thing tended to make shinobi paranoid to the point many of them listed their postal express as bars or restaurants they frequented. While sensible, it also put the kibosh on Naruto's plans. All he had was a set of lists, 'Likely', 'Less Likely' and 'No, Just No'.

Seeing the librarian staring at him oddly, Naruto signalled his clone and they readied themselves to leave. He could scarcely imagine the problems it would cause if the 'Demon' was found to be impersonating the Uchiha clan head and all-round genius.

The librarian was baffled. Why was the Uchiha clan head wandering around with a 'kick me' sign on his back?

5:03 pm, Konoha Shinobi Academy

"So, in summation, we're absolutely no closer to finding out who our sensei is going to be. Wondeful." grunted Sasuke as the Naru-corps began cross-referencing the lists from the library with the one from the Hokage tower. Sakura and Naruto stood in front of him, one dejected, the other indignant. "Calm down, teme. We got some info, and it's better than nothing." retorted the blond, who had dismissed one of his clones for trying to prank him.

"...Fine. But only because we're on a time limit. Let's check the test scroll again." Unfurling the scroll and scanning it with his bloodline, Sasuke found himself experiencing the strangest sensation of deja vu. _'Why is this so familiar?"_

"...and I'm telling you, we won't be put on a team with the old man!" "But the pattern fits! Dead last who's actually not that bad, kunoichi with perfect chakra control, and genius who's weird and pale! It totally fits!" Sasuke's eye twitched as the clones' conversation drifted back to him._  
_

"Would it be weird for me to strangle you in front of you, Naruto?" he asked, as politely as possible. He was waved off by the blond, who was now engrossed in the 'mission' scroll. "Go ahead. They're being assholes today, anyway. I must be hungry or something..."

"I've got it!" came the cry as Sasuke fanned away the smoke from the most annoying of the clones. The original, unfortunately, was harder to deal with at times, as he dragged him back to the cheering pinkette.

"ANBU! Whoever wrote this knows us well, and the ANBU are always assigned to keep watch over the academy and festivals, and they work at your compound, too! We're going to be trained by ANBU!" she squealed, trying to cuddle up to Sasuke, who hid behind Naruto.

"We still have to find them, though. Don't go celebrating just yet, Sakura," Sasuke interrupted her gleeful exclamations with his usual brand of stoicism and mild annoyance. "We still need some kind of a plan. Do you have any ideas?" he continued, turning to his best friend. The grin on the Uzumaki's face was threatening to split his head in two.

"I might have something in mind..."

6:17 pm, ANBU barracks Delta entrance, Konoha forests

"This is so stupid. So very stupid," muttered Sasuke, as Naruto landed on the branch beside him, hood up, clutching a bag almost as big as himself. "You really think this will work?" he asked skeptically, as Sakura clambered up to the same branch, her role as scout finished with. Naruto just laughed, as a siren came from inside the building.

"Just watch. I'm gonna use tact. And diplomacy and shit." he grinned. Sasuke rolled his eyes, seeing the entry guards readying themselves to move. "Yeah, we are most definitely screwed."

"Stand down!" came a voice, attached to a person, attached to the knife at an unconcerned Naruto's throat. The man turned the three genin around slowly, his face covered with what looked to be a pink towel. "Fuck's sake, Uzumaki, why'd you-" he began, before touching a hand to the communication device in his ear. "Call off the search, Naruto did it- what? No, I don't know how! Because I haven't asked- how am I supposed to ask if you won't shut up? Goodbye!" he barked, before looking back at the smirking genin.

"Heya, Kame-san? How've things been back at base?" "You are in so much trouble, brats." Naruto just grinned wider. "Actually, we're not. You see, we have a document which has been authorised as a mission by the Hokage. Any problems you have with our completing our mission objectives have to be taken up with him rather than us." he elaborated, ignoring the incredulous looks he was getting from all present.

"Anyways, here's what we need. We need to question all of the ANBU members who spoke with the Hokage about the possibility of leading a genin team, in the next hour and... forty minutes. Organise this, and you get your masks back." Kame snorted at that. "Oh, is that all. I'll see what I can do as soon as you give me back the damn masks." he offered, the four of them now approaching the barracks entrance. He began muttering under his breath as he replaced his mask. "...really seeing how much he can pull with that damn Jounin rank..."

Sasuke nudged Naruto as they waited. "I still say this was a stupid idea."

7:28 pm, ANBU barracks Delta entrance, Konoha forests

"Shit, that's the last of them. Now what do we do?" moaned Naruto. Sakura was by now panicking, and Sasuke was wearing a path into the forest floor. "I don't know, Uzumaki. Why, did you not have a plan for this in that 'master prankster' brain of yours?" "Hey, this was your idea, and my plan worked great!" "Great's not the word I would use..." "You wanna go a few rounds, bastard? I'll-"

"Shut up!" screamed Sakura. "If you two can't work together, we'll have no chance of passing this test. Get your shit together!" she roared, reddening as she realised what she had just done. The two boys went back to glaring at one another, before Naruto sighed.

"Sakura-chan's right, we've only got like, half an hour left. Besides, the most important thing on a mission is teamwork. Huh, why does that sound familiar..." Sasuke nodded, trying to think. "I remember Iruka-sensei saying something like that when we were talking about the Fourth back during the war..." The three of them looked down at the list in front of them in silence. Naruto, once again, was the first to breach the peace. He did so with the subtlety and nuance he was known for.

"FUCK! Guys, come on!" he bellowed, bursting back towards the village proper. The two shared a look before trying to follow the sprinting blond. Sasuke grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her behind him as the chase moved to the rooftops, ignoring her blush and squeak of embarassment.

Their chase came to a stop at an apartment complex in the north of the village. Sasuke and Sakura, now out of breath, landed next to Naruto, who was counting the apartments with a finger. "Wha-what the he-hell, Uzumaki, what was that about?" panted the Uchiha, trying and failing to glare at him. Naruto gestured for them both to follow him as he started his explanation.

"See, I figured it out when you reminded me of that history lesson. See, our sensei knows about all three of us, and tried to tailor the test to each of us; I'm creative, Sakura-chan, you're intelligent, and Sasuke, you're observant. That means whoever set up the test actually wants us to pass. I can name the adults who'd want me to succeed on one hand and most of them are either civilians or Hokage-sama. Plus, Kame-san was saying something about our sensei trying to see what he can do as a jounin."

"So," continued Sakura, starting to get the picture as they stopped, knocking at one particular door. "That means he's only just moved into the role and wants to see what his rank is capable of doing. So someone who's just become a regular jounin, not someone who's held the rank for a while." That plus the note..."

"The test was to see how well we could deal with having a minimum of information, not just test our ability to locate someone. That plus how well we could work together, seeing as we'd be screwed if we hadn't." concluded Sasuke as they heard the lock being opened. "We had to compare our information and we had to all fill a role for the ANBU infiltration."

"Excellent work. Now there's only one thing left for you three to do, hopefully in the next... four minutes." laughed the spiky-haired man standing in the doorframe, a book in his hand. All three had smiles of varying sizes on their faces as they bowed in respect.

"Team Seven reporting for duty, Iruka-sensei!"

...

Chapter done!

You guys know the drill by now. Also, longest chapter to date! Woo!


	12. Preparations

Chapter 11! Or, you know, 12 if you count the prologue. Anyway, hooray! Team Seven has been active for about two months at this point, by the by.

Stuff I'm explaining:

princessbinas: Don't get me wrong, I like Kakashi. My only problem with him is that he's kind of an inversion of 'those who can't do, teach'. As a genius, he expects his students to also be geniuses and to be improving of their own initiative. That's not great teacher material. Sasuke is the one who learned the most from him, and most of that was Sharingan stuff. However, he will still have an impact on the story, especially when he finds out what happened to 'his' team.

...

Story! Mission time! Training! Etc!

Sakura flopped down on the grass at training ground 7, completely breathless. Tree-walking was more difficult than she'd anticipated, given how easily her teammates could do it. Speaking of, Naruto and Sasuke were sparring/swearing profusely as they attempted the water walking exercise. Iruka-sensei was watching them, sat cross-legged on the surface of the water, calling for a break as he noticed his sole female student coming so close to losing consciousness.

"Alright, that's enough. I'm very proud of how far you've come in this past month. Naruto, your control is improving rapidly, but you still waste a sgnificant portion of your chakra. I know you have chakra to spare, but even your reserves aren't infinite. Sasuke, you are very close to mastering this exercise, but you tend to lose focus after a few minutes, meaning you lose control of your chakra output. Sakura, your control is as closest to perfect out of most shinobi I've ever met, but your reserves are almost dangerously low. Keep practising tree-walking to try and bring them up.

"I must say, I'm very proud of how well the three of you are doing. We've even managing to set the records for the most missions done by a genin team, thanks to Naruto's Kage Bunshin."

**Flashback**

**"Now, we're going to start with D-ranked missions. There should be little to no threat on these... unfortunately, they're not quite as exciting as you seem to think." Iruka informed his starry-eyed genin, who had been waiting impatiently to begin 'official missions'. "I want to make this clear, so you're not too disappointed when we get our mission. We won't be fighting nuke-nin, or rescuing princesses, or any thing like that. In fact, we won't even be leaving the village until we begin C-ranks."**

**"So when can we start doin' C-ranks, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto piped up. Iruka glanced down at the blond, eyebrows raised. "Normally, it takes a few months, but if we complete enough D-ranks, I'll see what I can do. Fair enough?" he offered, before flinching at what all present knew to be the Uzumaki's 'planning' face.**

**"So, the more D-ranks we complete, the sooner we get to the awesome missions?" "I-I suppose-" "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" With a hushed 'pop' of chakra, the training ground was submerged in a wave of grey-clad genin, knocking the genin of Team Seven to the ground. "This way, we can get tons of these missions done!" Naruto beamed.**

**Iruka, meanwhile, was trying not to choke on his own tongue. _'S-so many? How? How could a genin- right, Kyuubi. Of course." _he thought in surprise before speaking again. "Okay, but you're only going to use enough clones to make three four-man teams. The real you is going to rotate working with each of us. We'll meet up back here after our missions to work on drills and individual skills. Ready?" The three students nodded, heading across the village to the Hokage tower.**

(Flashback end)

"At this rate, we'll be ready to try for a C-rank in the next couple of weeks. Now, I believe I promised to work on ninjutsu with each of you." continued Iruka, handing a piece of paper to each of his students. "This is chakra paper. It will tell you your chakra element, what type of ninjutsu you are most proficient with. Now, just channel-" he found himself cut off as half of Sasuke's paper burst into flames. The boy swore, blowing on his burnt fingers as Iruka stared at the second half, which was crumpling on the ground.

"Interesting. It seems you have a double affinity, Sasuke. That could be indicative of a new kekkei genkai in the next couple of generations." offered Iruka as his student glared at him before speaking further. "You knew that would happen." His sensei shrugged in embarassment. "If you'd let me finish, I'd have warned you to be careful."

Sakura looked down at the paper in her hand. "I'm not sure I want to do this now, Iruka-sensei." Naruto just glanced over at his friend, who was submerging his hand in the lake. "The hell with it." he muttered, channeling his chakra and bracing himself.

"Okay, that I didn't expect. Seems you're a wind type, Naruto. As far as I know, we've only got a half dozen wind types in Konoha, so I'll have to find someone to help you with that while I give Sasuke a hand with lightning training. Sakura?" The girl just sighed, channeling her energies into the paper.

"Water, eh? I'll be able to help you use that. In the mean time, I want you three to begin studying these scrolls," Iruka concluded. "However, now that we have more than fifty D-ranks under our belts, I'm going to-" "YEAH! WE'RE GOIN' ON A C-RANK!"

Iruka just sighed. "Yes, Naruto, provided you can _try_ to be professional about this." Sasuke shook his head. "I don't know what you mean, sensei. This is as professional as he gets."

SCENE BREAK

"Ah, Team Seven. Come to clear out the list of D-ranks again?" smiled the Sandaime as the four approached the mission desk. Iruka bowed before replying. "Not today, Hokage-sama. Actually, we are here to request a C-ranked mission, if any are available." The Sandaime arched an eyebrow in question.

"Interesting. I would have thought you would wait a while longer before requesting anything higher, Umino-san." Iruka flushed. "W-well, I did promise them a more exciting assignment if they completed enough D-ranks, and we're starting to overtake some of the teams from last year in that regard." he offered lamely, rubbing the back of his head in embarassment.

"Yes, well, I had a feeling when Asuma asked that the rest of you wouldn't be too far behind..." mused the Hokage, rifling through the papers in front of him. "Here we are. A C-rank mission to clear a bandit nest near the Kawa no Kuni border. Rendezvous with the border patrol nearby. You can meet up with Team 10 on the way back to get a report on their mission. You know how Asuma is for those, don't you?" Iruka chuckled as he accepted the mission scroll. "He's still nowhere near as bad as Hatake-san, though."

"Okay, team, pack for an extended trip, we don't know how long we'll be gone for, especially if we're pitching in with Team Ten's assignment. Make sure you bring enough rations for at least two weeks. Ready?"

"Hai, Iruka-sensei!"

SCENE BREAK

Asuma coughed harshly, grimacing as he bled profusely from his side. "Give it up, Zabuza! We both know you're out of chakra after that last attack." Momochi Zabuza, Demon of Kirigakure, stood on a tree branch, as the genin of Team Ten tried to find their footing amidst the flooded clearing, Chouji supporting Tazuna as the old man gaped at the battling jounin.

Zabuza lifted his greatsword, ready to strike, before a pair of senbon erupted from the treeline to hit his neck. A shinobi in an ANBU-style mask dropped down. "I must thank you, Sarutobi-san. I've been tracking Momochi for several months now without getting such an opportunity to take him down," the newcomer asserted coolly, bending down to sling the body over his shoulders. "My orders are to take the body and blade back to Kirigakure, to keep our secrets. I'm sure you understand, being the son of the Hokage." Asuma just nodded, not entirely trusting himself to speak. _'Kami damn it, that's a lot of blood. Just hold out a little longer..."_

The two Kiri natives vanished in a swirl of mist. As his vision began to fade, a last thought flickered through Asuma's mind. _'I thought they were supposed to destroy the bod- oh, please no.' _He was only peripherally aware of his students rushing to try and help him as he lapsed into unconsciousness.

SCENE BREAK

"How much longer, Iruka-sensei?" gasped Sakura as Team Seven jumped through the trees, travelling 'as the crow flies', as it were. The pinkette, despite her best efforts, was still below average in terms of stamina and chakra reserves. However, the difference between herself and the relative powerhouses that were her other teammates was making her feel like a complete weakling.

Iruka held up a hand to halt his students. "We still have about a day and a half to two days' travel before we reach our target, but we can stop here for the night. Now what's the first thing we do before settling down?" Naruto and Sasuke smirked in response. "Set up defences!"

With Naruto calling up a swarm of Kage Bunshin under Sasuke's supervision, the campsite was soon surrounded by enough traps to stop a small army. Several Naruclones snatched up armfuls of firewood, which Sasuke ignited with a low-powered fireball, before the trio settled down to study their scrolls. Iruka, meanwhile, sat down on a downed tree trunk to take first watch. Sakura sat nearby, reading in silence even as her companions decided to turn in for the night.

"Sensei? Am I weighing down the team?" she eventually asked, catching the attention of the newly-minted jounin. "It's just, Naruto and Sasuke have known each other for years, and Naruto's way better than he was in the academy. They're both really strong already, and all I have is book-knowledge. I can't keep up with them." she whispered, eyes downcast.

"Sakura, trust me. You are important to this team. If it weren't for you, they'd end up killing themselves because they're both too reckless to know when to stop. You keep them grounded and stop them from killing one another when they get too worked up. Honestly, I was worried that _I _was holding you three back," replied Iruka, giving a wan smile. "The only reason I tried to become a jounin was in case your sensei was biased against Naruto, or go too far with Sasuke and forget they have another two students. I'm nowhere near as qualified as most of the other candidates for your sensei were."

"But you're a great teacher, sensei! I've mastered tree walking, and the boys are nearly finished with water walking, and we only started those about a week ago!" interjected the girl, gesturing widely to illustrate her point. Iruka just chuckled darkly. "Maybe, but the main reason they assign jounin and not chuunin as genin commanders is because their skill level is high enough to allow for any complications on missions. As it stands, you three working together could beat me easily. If we came up against even an average level jounin, I'd need your help to have any decent chance of winning."

Sakura appeared deep in thought. "Sensei? I'm going to get better. So are you. We'll show that you don't need to be some kind of prodigy to be a great shinobi." Iruka smirked. "We'll prove that anyone can be a prodigy if they're willing to work at it. Speaking of, once you have the basics of the Mizuryu no Jutsu down, I can show you new ways to use it." The two less overpowered members of Team Seven shared a smile. They had a mutual reason to get stronger, and to hell with anyone in their way.

SCENE BREAK

Itachi was distinctly annoyed. Not that anyone other than 'Tobi' had noticed, mind you. His 'extended mission' excuse was quickly wearing thin; even as his allies built up their networks, he was stuck working with an absolute sadist. The fact that that described most of Akatsuki was no help to his mood.

"Hey, Itachi," the blue shark-man began. (Itachi was far too embarassed to ask about the mechanics of his partner's conception, but how could a shark and a human even _do _that? And _why?_) "Why aren't we heading towards Iwa to find that Five-tailed guy?"

_'Because I am not going to contribute to the destruction of the Elemental Nations if I can help it.' _"Because my eyesight has been worsening, and any failings on my part could collapse the leader's plan. Therefore, the best course of action is to seek a skilled medic before undertaking our givenn assignment."

_'And because I think Tsunade-sama should at least have some warning of what's to come. Orochimaru, Tobi, Pain... this is going to be even tougher than I'd anticipated.'_

_..._

Done!

Wave arc has officially begun, and the poll is closing. It's looking like Konoha's gonna get some extra soldiers by the end of all this.

Anyway, you guys know the drill by now. Questions, comments, whatever. Peace!


	13. Excursions

Chapter Whatever! Yay!

The view counts... THEY'RE OVER NINE THOUSAAAAND!

Questiony things;

BillyZhao; There will be pairings later on, but nothing serious until the 'shippuden' section of the story, if I get that far. To be perfectly honest, I feel like a creepy old man when I talk about twelve or thirteen year-olds in full-blown relationships. Also, this story will not include lemons, because any attempt I could make at that would just be laughably bad. Pairings will be revealed later, so that I can go as long as possible without alienating big groups of avid shippers.

princessbinas; Yeah, hehe... who wants to see the confrontation between Kakashi and Iruka? I can fit it in around the chuunin exams if anyone's actually interested.

greenblue22; I'm leaving as much of the setup for the characters and backstory as close to canon as I can. And I mean, it's not like a particular affinity means you can only use one type of technique. I don't want to make the genin any more overpowered than they are already, but the major changes from canon will start kicking in from about halfway through the chuunin exams arc.

Guest; The Wave Mission and chuunin exams were stuff that wasn't going to be too heavily affected by Naruto and Sasuke being friends earlier. That's the main reason why they're still happening now. To answer your other question, Naruto only really needs the skills he has in canon to be pretty damn effective, but where's the fun in that? He's already studying another jutsu to add to his repertoire, and he'll be getting more in future. Just a word of warning, none of Team Seven will be spamming a huge selection of jutsu. Sasuke will have an advantage to learning them (sharingan is hax) but he still won't have hundreds of techniques to choose from.

Holy walls of text.

...

Story time!

Iruka and the rest of Team Seven dropped in front of the border watchtower. Iruka held out the mission scroll as the guard approached. "Umino Iruka, jounin-sensei of Team Seven, here in response to the bandit clearance request." The guard smirked, a pair of red sunglasses covering his eyes.

"So, Iruka, why didn't you tell anyone you got promoted? We had to hear 'bout it from Kotetsu 'n' Izumo. What, you got better things to do than hang out with a buncha chuunin?" he cackled, clapping Iruka on the shoulder. "Seriously, man, we're all waitin' to hear what The Prankster Prince of Konoha does with the most OP team in years!" Iruka just sighed. "You never change, Noboru. What do you need us to do about these bandits, exactly?"

"All business, I see." grinned the newcomer, grabbing an odachi (a/n: big goddamn katana) and slinging it over his shoulders. "Right, I'm gonna show you where they're hiding, and then we take 'em out! Simple, right?" Naruto turned to his companions, grinning widely. "I like the way he thinks."

SCENE BREAK

"Okay, Naruto, I want you to use your clones to sneak in and give us an idea on their numbers. Sasuke, you take out the guards and be ready to catch anyone who leaves. Sakura, you watch his back. Once we have an idea as to what we're facing, myself and Noboru will move to suppress the bulk of the gang while you three pick off any stragglers. We all know what we're doing?"

"Hai, sensei." whispered the trio as they stealthily readied themselves to strike. A trio of clones henged into woodland creatures began their infiltration as Sasuke and Sakura moved into position.

3 minutes later...

"Damnit Iruka, we don't have time for this shit!" barked Noboru, drawing his sword and charging. "Let's do this!" he roared, charging headlong into the den, leaving behind a distraught team. "Oh dear Log, he just ran in." "Sensei, he just ran in there!" "I noticed! Scrap the plan, we've got to back him up!" called the commander of Team Seven, leaping after his friend.

"Mistakes were made! Mistakes were made!" called a retreating Noboru, followed by dozens of armed bandits. "Get back here, ya Konoha bastard!" Noboru grinned as he leapt onto a low branch. "You've stepped right into my trap! Now, Iruka, destroy them all!" Silence followed his proclamation. "... Iruka, they don't look very destroyed."

"Working on it!" hissed the jounin as he wove hand seals together. "Suiton: Daikozui no Jutsu!" he barked, calling up as much groundwater as he could to flood the area. The enemy, caught by surprise, as anyone would by the ground suddenly becoming a lake, began struggling to keep their footing. "Now, take them out while we have the chance!"

Noboru and Iruka charged, sword and kunai drawn, making quick work of the bulk of the group. Naruto and Sasuke charged in behind them, throwing kicks and punches faster than most of the goons could track. Sakura hung back, kunai at the ready.

"Got you, bitch!" snarled a voice as a hand snapped over Sakura's mouth, a knife at her throat. "Now, if you four don't want the girl's blood on your hands, you'll drop your weapons and surrender." continued the man, drawing the attention of the other Konoha-nin.

Iruka's eyes narrowed. "Kotei Kirai. Kusagakure has a bounty out on you after your attack on the daimyo." The missing-nin shrugged, keeping his blade firmly pressed against Sakura's neck. "Fat bastard had it coming. But enough reminiscing. Put your weapons down before I get... antsy."

Gritting their teeth, the older shinobi dropped their weapons with a splash. Sasuke and Naruto stood at the ready, arms hovering by their shuriken pouches. "Let Sakura-chan go, asshole!" Naruto growled, a hint of killing intent leaking out. "What he said." echoed Sasuke, sharingan glowing in the shadows of the forest canopy.

"Well, it appears we've found the weak link, then. Don't feel too bad, girly. If nothing else, you make an excellent hostage-" continued the nuke-nin before a stream of water erupted from the pool below, catching him full in the face. Sakura followed up with a headbutt to stun him, before spinning and knocking him away wiith an elbow strike. "Mizuryu no Jutsu. Don't just assume I'm weak," she grunted, before giving a distinctly Uchiha-like smirk. "Asshole."

He then burst into a cloud of grass cuttings. "You're not as bad as I thought, girly. But anyone can beat a bunshin. Now it's my turn to have some fun."

SCENE BREAK

Shikamaru groaned as he and Chouji heaved Asuma onto the bed, Ino trying to bandage his wounds and keep them from reopening. In his peripheral vision, he saw Tazuna explaining the situation to his daughter, Tsunami.

"Shikamaru, what do we do?" asked Chouji, worry etched into his face. "Now that Asuma-sensei's injured, what do we do about Gatou and his mercenaries?" Shikamaru shook his head, glancing at a pale, horrified Ino.

"We have to be ready for anything. Ino, take some of my and Chouji's supplies and start setting up some defences around the house and the bridge. Chouji, you and I will stick with Tazuna until we can send a message to Konoha for backup. Check some of Asuma-sensei's supplies as well, see if there's anything we can do with them." The other two genin nodded shakily, rifling through the packs they'd all brought. Shikamaru sighed. _'Troublesome... seems like I'm in command for the time being. So much for an average C-rank...'_

"You're all going to die, you know." came the sullen voice of Tazuna's grandson, Inari. "No-one stands up to Gatou and lives. Just look at your leader." Shikamaru gritted his teeth. None of them actually knew how to help Asuma recover, only keep him relatively stable. "Why did you even come here? You could have stayed home and not gotten involved in all this."

"We came here because it was the right thing to do. Don't bother talking to me if you're just going to whine about things being impossible." hissed the Nara, uncharacteristically angry. "It's a pain trying to fight someone like Gatou, but it's even more annoying if someone like that just gets to do whatever they want. We're going to fight, even if we only have a tiny chance of actually achieving anything." The boy just rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. You don't know anything about suffering under a tyrant like Gatou." he huffed, wandering away. Shikamaru clenched his fists, before storming off to help Ino set up the traps. _'That kid... he really pisses me off...'_

SCENE BREAK

"Jump!" Iruka barked, slamming a hand onto the surface of the water, now barely at ankle height. "Raiton: Raihadou!" he called, electricity flowing down his arm into the water, stunning the few remaining bandits. Kirai, however, merely stepped onto a tree trunk, smirking at his hired goons falling to the ground.

"Interesting use of techniques. Suiton and Raiton in conjunction? You must feel very proud of yourself." he mused condescendingly. "Still, to have an Uchiha placed under your command, you must be more accomplished than that. What do you say we skip the formalities, the warm-ups, and just go straight for the big guns?" he continued, eyes fixed on Iruka. He thrust his arms forward as he finished speaking.

"Kusagakure Hijutsu: Jigoku no Kakera!" he roared, chakra bursting out of him to form an enormous sphere, containing all six of them within a barrier. Naruto threw a kunai at the curved wall of chakra, only to have it repelled back towards him. "This is the technique I used to escape Kusa. If their forces couldn't break throught this, what chance do you have?" grinned their opponent, who seemed no worse for wear even after such an energy-intensive technique.

"Don't underestimate Konoha ninja, asswipe! Kenkousen!" roared Noboru, firing a wave of chakra from his sword and charging headlong at his opponent. "Just who the hell do you think I am!" he continued, throwing a punch that smashed through the tree behind their opponent. "Don't you dodge me. Don't you fucking dodge me!"

"Very good. Maybe if you were a little faster, I'd have had some trouble with that. As for your technique..." interjected the former Kusa-nin, snapping his fingers. "It's only fair to give it back, no?" A diagonal slash tore through the back Noboru's flak jacket, slamming him against the tree.

_'Shit, I couldn't even see that coming.' _thought Iruka, struggling to focus through the haze of chakra. _'Wait, I couldn't see it...' _"Sasuke, what can you see?" he called, readying himself for an attack. Sasuke flinched as he activated his bloodline.

"Sorry, sensei. All this chakra in the air is interfering with the Sharingan." Iruka nodded gravely. "Naruto, get us some reinforcements and stand back to back. Don't give him any openings to attack you-" he cut himself off mid-sentence, barely keeping ahead of the flashing kunai that burst into existence in front of him.

"Worry about yourself, jounin-_san_." jeered the Kusa native, who hadn't moved from his position next to the barely aware Noboru. "You know, I thought I was pretty well informed about Konoha's main players, so why don't I know you?"

"I'm new." snarked Iruka, thoroughly sick of the other man's attitude. "And I think I've figured you out, Kotei-san. See, Kusa won't give away anything on you that could be used against them," he continued, now calmer, as he made a boar seal and held it for a moment. "So your technique is hyped up as an unbeatable ninjutsu. In fact," he grunted, thrusting out an arm, grabbing hold of _something_, and throwing it over his shoulder. The haze surrounding them flickered as Kirai reappeared beside Iruka.

"It's just a simple barrier in combination with an illusion. Your genjutsu is very impressive. But it's not unbeatable." concluded Iruka. _'I'm starting to enjoy this kind of thing... Naruto's been a bad influence, I guess.' _Iruka closed his eyes and entered a taijutsu stance, to the surprise of his students. "Iruka-sensei, what are you-" A raised hand cut off Naruto's question.

"Naruto, trust your sensei. You three take care of Noboru. Leave this one to me." he instructed, charging in a seemingly random direction. As he moved forward, striking at empty air, Kirai's silhouette flickered and dispersed. "What the hell?" Naruto asked, as the genin moved to support the stunned chuunin.

"That guy's got us all in a combination ninjutsu-genjutsu. Iruka-sensei's got some kind of tracking jutsu, I guess, and he's going after the guy. We'd... just be in the way..." grunted Sasuke, forcing as much chakra as possible into his sharingan. _'If I could unlock the third stage, I could break through the illusion. Damn! Why? Why am I still this weak?'_

"Alright then," coughed a weak voice. "Let Iruka keep that guy busy. I've got a plan to deal with this lousy barrier..." groaned Noboru.

SCENE BREAK

"Tsunade-sama, I wish to speak with you in private." Tsunade just turned to glare at the unfortunate soul who dared to interrupt her drinking. "Uchiha Itachi. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you here and now."

Itachi sat across from her, not perturbed in the slightest by the threat. "I need your medical expertise. My vision is deteriorating heavily and I believe only you csn help." Tsunade placed the sake saucer down, turning her attention to him.

"That's not the passcode, brat. Why Jiraiya told me to listen to you, I don't know, but I owe him one, _one_, favour, and I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible. Meet me upstairs and I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama. Here is the payment for your services, in advance, as you requested." Itachi offered stoically, sliding a wad of ryo bills over to her as he left the bar.

_'Jiraiya never mentioned payment...' _Tsunade thought hazily, flipping through the bills, a slip of paper falling onto her lap as she did so. _'What the hell?'_

_"Tsunade-sama,_

_I'm sorry to bring you into this mess when you are trying to deal with your own issues, but you must deliver this message to Konoha as soon as you can._

_Orochimaru has begun amassing an army of nuke-nin and newly trained genin under the banner of 'Otogakure'. He has planned something to do with Konoha's chuunin exams. What exactly he is planning, I do not know, but he will likely make an attempt to kidnap or kill a child of the Uchiha clan. _

_Akatsuki have begun their assault on the jinchuuriki. To my knowledge, there is no team currently assigned to hunt down the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, but it is now only a matter of time._

_As it stands, the members of Akatsuki are as follows;_

_Myself  
Hoshigaki Kisame, former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He makes use of Samehada, a semi-sentient blade capable of shredding metal and absorbing chakra. He is also a master of Suiton ninjutsu, but genjutsu usage is almost non-existant.  
Akasuna no Sasori, puppet master of Suna. He has at his disposal over a hundred combat puppets and is protected by some sort of armour, though I have yet to see its limits tested. Makes extensive use of a wide variety of poisons.  
Kakuzu of Takigakure. While I know little of his full capacity, he can make use of black threads which he freely manipulates for both attacking and defensive maneuvers.  
Zetsu, origins unknown. Functioning as the organisation's chief spy, he can apparently merge with the earth to travel more quickly. Appearance and personality are split between the left-side 'White' and right-side 'Black' Zetsu. Possibly separate beings working as one.  
Konan, known in Amegakure as 'God's Angel' or simply 'Tenshi', her abilities are unknown as of this time._

_The 'Leader' of Akatsuki is a man known only as Pain. Based on my brief encounters, I must urge you not to be drawn into a confrontation with him. He bears the Rinnegan of legend, and has an immense amount of chakra at his disposal._

_However, he is not the most dangerous member of the organisation. _(Tsunade choked on her sake at this, after recovering from the previous revelation) _The most dangerous member is a man operating under the alias of 'Tobi'. Under no circumstances are you to engage this man. I have reason to believe that he is in fact Uchiha Madara, recovered from his battle with Senju Hashirama _(at this point, Tsunade merely finished the sake within reach) _at the Valley of the End sixty-five years ago. He bears a Mangekyou Sharingan in his right eye, and can make himself completely impervious to attacks. He often wears a distinctive mask, usually containing the colour orange._

_I realise that these seem like insurmountable odds, but both myself and Jiraiya-sama are preparing contingency plans to delay the organisation and hinder their goals. Hokage-sama, if you are reading this, be wary of Danzou. He has resources at his disposal that would be much safer in your hands._

_The roots of the great tree run deep, but they're also the first part to be tainted._

_ANBU operative, Uchiha Itachi, awaiting orders."_

Shaking her head, Tsunade left the bar to complete the favour Jiraiya had asked of her. _'Brat thinks he can use me as a messenger? I'll show him. I'll deliver your message all right, but I'll do it on my own time. It's nonsense anyway. Madara is dead. Jii-san killed him and sealed away the Kyuubi. That's all there is to it.' _she blinked a few times before activating a jutsu to burn through the alcohol in her system. _'And to top it off, you made me waste perfectly good sake! You're just lucky the chuunin exams are good for gambling, even with my track record. No other reason for me to go back._

_'None.'_

_..._

Done!

New Jutsu!

Daikouzui no Jutsu/ Great flood technique/ B/ The user draws as much water as they can from under the ground to use for other suiton jutsu. Can also be used to catch enemies off-guard.

Mizuryu/ Water Flow/ D/ Basic technique for a fledgling suiton user. Draws up a small amount of water and directs it as the user commands.

Raihadou/ Thunder Pulse/ C/ A short-range technique, where the user channels Raiton chakra into an adjacent opponent, or in Iruka's case, a pool of water.

Kusagakure Hijutsu: Jigoku no Kakera/ Hidden Grass Secret Technique/ A or S/ A combination of a barrier ninjutsu to trap enemies, and a genjutsu to hide the user from multiple senses, giving them the opprtunity for sneak attacks. What makes the jutsu especially dangerous is that the genjutsu is not affected by the target feeling pain, making it very difficult to escape.

Kenkousen/ Sword Beam/ C/ Chakra is channeled into a blade held by the user and released when the user is mid-swing, creating a thin but powerful cutting edge. Not as good for cutting as Wind chakra, but can be infused with elemental chakra if the user is skilled enough.

For some reason, I found Tsunade to be one of the hardest characters to write so far. I have no idea why.

Anyway, you know the drill. Peace out!


	14. Converging

Chapter This One! Hoping you guys are still enjoying what's going on.

Stuff to talk about:

princessbinas; Itachi is fun to write. He's so stoic that he comes across as the Comically Serious (Thanks to TV tropes for that one). As far as he knows at the minute, his illness is just something he's caught and can't seem to shake. But what kind of medic wouldn't notice that he has Ninja Cancer? One who isn't Tsunade, that's who.

By the way, a new poll is up for anyone who wants to vote.

...

Chapter is go!

...

Iruka darted forwards, inwardly surprised at how slow his opponent seemed to be as he followed him through use of his clan's echolocation technique. _'Of course... by the time he uses this, he's almost won already... can't hit what you can't find." _Bringing his hands together in the ox seal, Iruka charged his palms with the Raihadou, ensuring his enemy would have to keep away or risk electrocution. "Take note. The shinobi who can use a C-rank technique in two seconds has the advantage over the one who can use an A-rank in five. There will be a test on this later." Iruka's mocking got the desired result, as Kirai threw a sloppy punch out of anger, allowing the scarred jounin to catch him with an elbow strike.

"Fuck you!" roared the distant illusion of the man, reeling back. "How can you follow me? My genjutsu makes me undetectable by sight or sound! You can't be keeping up so easily!" Iruka just sighed. "I'm disappointed," he began, taking note of his rapidly-dropping chakra levels and palming a soldier pill. "I thought this was going to be my chance to prove my worth as a jounin, not an extended game of tag." he taunted, keeping his opponent's attention away from his companions, who were heading towards the far side of the barrier.

"Now, focus your attacks here. If we put enough pressure on one side, it'll weaken the barrier enough that we can break through." hissed Noboru, readying his sword. The genin nodded, Naruclones taking up defensive positions behind them. "Let's do it!" called Naruto as he and Sakura fired a barrage of kunai, explosive tags hissing on the handles. "Housenka no Jutsu!" Sasuke followed up with a series of fireballs, all of them directed at a specific point on the barrier. The blast resulting sent visible cracks through the surface of the chakra sphere, which started to close up as the dust settled.

"Damnit! Noboru-san! Hurry!" called Sakura, glancing over at the chuunin who was focusing chakra into his arm. "Don't worry, kid. This barrier..." he replied, smirking. "Is going down! Choshuu hijutsu: Daikajou Toppa!" he called, the chakra he'd collected circling his forearm as he threw a punch. "JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?" he roared fiercely, the chakra expanding to form a glowing, oversized drill.

With a final yell, the barrier shattered, breaking the genjutsu along with it. Noboru gave the genin a thumbs-up before abruptly falling to his knees. _'Still too chakra intensive... still, the rest of them can handle this loser easily. I'll just take a little nap...' _he thought before drifting off into a blissful unconsciousness.

"Noboru-san!" Iruka gritted his teeth, hearing the cry from his pink-haired student. _'Damnit! I can follow him easy enough, but he's just far enough ahead that I can't catch him! I can't let him get near Noboru or the kids either... well, it's time I did something incredibly stupid once again.' _the Jounin mused, dropping an explosive tag behind him, making the tiger seal as he darted towards his opponent. "Katsu!" he called, trying to reinforce his body with chakra as the blast pushed him forwards.

"Okay, what the actual fu-" began the missing-nin, before Iruka managed to catch hold of him and slam him into the ground. "Who _are _you?" he asked desperately, trying to raise his hands to unleash his technique again. Iruka proceeded to silently break one of the outstretched arms, sending his opponent into shock. "I am a teacher. I hope you've found the lesson informative." he smiled disconcertingly, before knocking out Kirai with a blow to the head.

"Iruka-sensei!" called his blond student, eyes sparkling. "THAT WAS SO AWESOME! You were all like, 'I'm a teacher, deal with it,' and he was like 'curse you, Konoha!' and you were _so cool _and-" babbled Naruto excitedly, before Sakura dropped a fist onto his head. "Baka! Give Iruka-sensei a minute before you start going on like that!" Iruka just chuckled at their antics, as Sasuke stumbled forwards, supporting Noboru on his shoulders.

"So no chance of me getting some help carrying this guy, then." the Uchiha groaned, struggling under the weight of the taller man. A puff of smoke signalled the appearance of three Naruto-shaped pack mules, one transforming into a stretcher to carry the chuunin.

"Excellent work, you three," praised Iruka, after confirming that Noboru was okay, merely exhausted. "The appearance of a missing-nin will bump this mission up to a B-rank at the very least. I'll see to it that we get Noboru back to relatively okay as soon as possible before we head south to meet up with Team Ten. Let's get these bandits tied up. Mission complete." he smiled, as Naruto cheered and drew his teammates into a hug.

SCENE BREAK

Shikamaru stood ready beside Tazuna, as the few remaining workers continued construction of the bridge. "Hey, kid," the bridge builder began, hesitant. "Why'd you agree to help me? All I've done is get your sensei hurt and bring you all into a warzone." Shikamaru leaned against a stack of timbers, gazing up at the sky.

"'Cause even though it's a pain to try and help you, how could I go about knowing I'd let you die?" he offered bluntly. "Sensei knew the risk we were taking better than anyone, but he still wanted to help you. That's reason enough for me." he gave a small smile. "Should I keep going?"

"...Thanks, kid." whispered Tazuna, even as the workers continued to mutter worriedly. Shikamaru gave a thumbs-up, though he was far from confident. _'Without a way to send word to Konoha, we're not gonna last too long. Troublesome... why wasn't I stronger? I should have been able to help, but that nuke-nin was way beyond our level...'_

_'We might actually die here.' _came the thought, unbidden. Shikamaru clenched a fist. Worrying wouldn't do any good, especially with Ino and Chouji depending on him.

SCENE BREAK

"Just make sure he gets some rest, alright, Jumaru-san?" smiled Iruka as they waved goodbye to a sleepy Noboru, back at the border watchtower. The jounin in command just laughed, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Not a problem, Umino-san. Noboru-kun will be fine. But may I suggest you get a move on before your genin bolt?" he laughed, glancing at a clearly eager Naruto. "You have been here for a couple days now. Don't you have to head to Nami no Kuni soon?"

"Yeah... okay, team, let's head out! Team Ten is probably waiting for us as we speak. It's about a day's journey from here to the coast, and we'll be water walking to the island after we rest up!" _That _got a reaction, as two jaws dropped and Sasuke blinked in surprise, the equivalent of anyone else yelling out.

"Don't give me those looks! It's less than two hours travel, and if the past couple of days are any indication, your control has improved enough to pull it off! Now, go get your packs and meet up outside!" The genin nodded, bounding upstairs to their temporary living quarters.

"That seems excessive, Umino-san. I can't think of any rookie team who'd have to pull off something like that." Iruka grinned widely. "Exactly, Jumaru-san. They've been pushing one another to improve at a ridiculous rate. We might be looking at the next Sannin." he smiled, pride in his voice. "I never imagined myself as being a jounin, you know? But there was something about those kids... people like that just inspire you to do your best." Jumaru nodded silently, as Iruka jumped up to a tree branch ahead of his scrambling students. _'Umino-san... I wonder just how far your students will go?'_

SCENE BREAK

"Zabuza-sama, I managed to find them." whispered the false hunter-nin as he approached the recovering swordsman. "It seems they're guarding the bridge builder and his family at all times. However, I haven't seen Sarutobi-san around anywhere. If he has recovered, he's staying out of sight."

"He's not recovered, Haku. Not after that level of injury. Not yet. Give it another two, three days, we'll get that old man out of the way and be on our way to another go at Kirigakure, to take down that damned Yagura," grunted the older man, hefting himself into a sitting position. "Take off that mask when you're talking to me, Haku. You know it pisses me off." His companion removed the mask, revealing an extraordinarily feminine face.

"Apologies, Zabuza-sama. Old habits die hard. Should I see about getting our fellow rebels in to collect the money?" Zabuza scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Listen up, Haku. We do not have _fellow _rebels. The few allies we did have are either trying to get out of Kiri ASAP or sucking up to that bastard of a Mizukage so they don't get killed. Our best chance is to get enough funds to bring some mercenaries into our forces. That's why we're here." Haku raised an eyebrow in question.

"What about Gouzu and Meizu?" he asked, almost nonchalantly. Zabuza grimaced as he shrugged. "They were idiots. Hell, they're probably safer in a cell in Konoha than they were with us. Don't give me that look, Haku, I'm not worried for them. They were loyal, and I can appreciate that. That is as far as it goes."

Haku gave a sad smile. "I know, Zabuza-sama. I know that."

SCENE BREAK

Itachi suppressed a shudder as he felt the medical chakra invading his body. Tsunade was not overly concerned with his comfort, it seemed. He just hoped Kisame could keep himself distracted and not start killing and maiming. That would be... problematic.

meanwhile...

"Is it... cat?" The citizens of Otafuku Gai ignored the strange blue man as much as they could. The fact that he was talking to himself notwithstanding, he was a shinobi. They were _weird_.

"I'm guessing... clouds?" he continued, before throwing his arms up in defeat. "Fine! Fine! What the hell is it?" Another brief pause. "WHAT?! Chakra doesn't count, it- you know what, if you're going to use that kind of language, you can just play by yourself!"

It would be quite some time before the man spoke again. "...I'm sorry." he muttered sullenly, pulling the wrapped mass beside him into a hug. "But no more I spy, at least until Itachi gets back. Deal?"

Shinobi were _weird._

back with Itachi...

"So, I did a full-body scan, and I can prevent your vision from deteriorating quite as quickly as it is at present. However..." Tsunade reported, the epitome of professionalism. The slight slurring of her words was the only indicator of having drunk enough to knock out a small elephant. "I did find something a little more worrying. There appears to be a build-up of tissue in your lungs... I believe it's some form of cancer." Itachi blinked in shock, no other change in his exppression.

"Cancer?" he prompted quietly. Tsunade nodded gravely. "Left untreated, I'd say you have maybe eighteen months to two years. Now, I may be able to help, but this kind of procedure is extremely delicate. Any attempt at removing the affected tissue would leave you weakened, probably permanently. It would be limiting your ability to breathe and even move properly. Even after all that, you'd need a transplant at some point or risk it coming back worse."

Itachi sat in silence for a few minutes, weighing his options. To a civilian, there would be no question about accepting treatment, but for a shinobi, especially a nuke-nin, being weakened, in any way, was practically a death sentence regardless of how well the treatment worked. _'What should I do...' _he pondered, thinking of all his plans. _'If I die, Sasuke can redeem the clan that much more easily, but... Madara's still out there. There's really only one option.'_

"How long will it take for the treatment, Tsunade-sama?" he eventually asked. Tsunade consulted her notes, muttering about 'ungrateful brats'. "Give or take, I should be able to clear the cancerous cells out over a few months. You'll have to be here regularly, though or we'll lose whatever progress we're making." Itachi nodded, pulling his cloak on once again.

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama. Please just allow me a few days to arrange things with my partner and our leader, and I will remain in contact for as long as you need me to." he offered politely, bowing in deference before exiting.

_'Otouto... I'll deal with Madara. You will be the one to protect our family after I'm gone.' _he mused, giving a small smile.

_'I know you can do it, Sasuke.' _he thought, taking out the journal that Jiraiya-sama had left him as part of their plans and writing a quick message.

_'Deba-san,_

_I'm going to be unable to meet as planned for the next few weeks. Check with your contacts to see if anyone we've been searching for has shown up on their radar._

_Do not draw unnecessary attention if you can help it. Akatsuki are suspicious as it is._

_Be careful._

_Itachi.'_

...

Done!

Anyone wondering who Itachi's searching for? Feel free to guess! _cough_give me ideas_cough. _Wow, sorry about that.

Anyway, you guys know the drill. Seeya!


	15. Explorations

Chapter! Yeah, I'm not even gonna try to keep track of numbers anymore.

Stuff;

princessbinas; I'm really not as subtle as I'd hoped, am I?

...

Story!

...

Iruka pulled himself to a halt as they approached the beach, the last lights of day fading rapidly. "Alright team, set up camp here and we'll set out bright and early tomorrow." he called to the genin's relief, especially Sakura and Sasuke. Naruto, on the other hand, was only somewhat winded, with even that disappearing after a few minutes. Sakura and Sasuke crawled into their sleeping bags gratefully. Naruto approached his sensei hesitantly.

"Iruka-sensei? Do you think you can show me how you did that fighting blind thing?" Iruka put down the remainder of his ration bar before responding. "Why do you ask? Are you having any problems with your vision? Anything we need to get checked?"

"No, no, it's not that, it's... you know what happened to Sasuke's clan, right? How his brother turned traitor and everything?" Naruto pressed on, visibly struggling to find the right words for what he wanted to say. "Sasuke says his goal is to kill Itachi, so's he can keep the kids and his family safe. But... Itachi's a complete monster and I don't want Sasuke to have to do that alone. Especially seeing as Itachi's so much stronger than us. I need to find some way to be able to fight someone who can just _look _at you and basically kick your ass. I figure if I don't look into his eyes, he won't be able to hypnotise me or whatever... it's stupid, I know..."

"I wouldn't say that. Reckless, yes, but stupid? What's so stupid about supporting your friend?" Iruka smiled. "As for the fighting blind... that's a technique I don't know if I can teach you. It was a technique from my father's clan, a 'hiden jutsu'. It's normally difficult to learn for someone outside of the clan, even more so if your chakra doesn't conform..." Naruto glared down, placing a hand over the seal on his stomach.

"However..." continued the teacher, ruffling his student's hair. "I know you'll come up with something. You're Uzumaki Naruto, after all." he continued, directing Naruto towards his own sleeping bag. "I'm looking forward to the day I can say that my student went on to become Hokage." he whispered, watching the small campfire they'd prepared flicker in the darkness.

_'The shadow of the fire will illuminate the village, right, Sandaime-sama?'_

SCENE BREAK

Kisame wandered around the streets of Amegakure, unconcerned with the crowds rushing to avoid him. A lone, surprisingly brave shinobi approached, visibly shaking. "H-Hoshigaki K-Kisame, s-stand down before w-we are forced t-to use v-vio-violence." he stuttered, gripping the handle of his sword tightly. Kisame grinned, hungrily.

"But it's been such a long time since I've had a chance to let loose..." he lamented, slowly heaving Samehada over his shoulder. "What's everyone's problem with violence, anyway? I always thought it was kinda fun, myself." he continued, lowering it to point at the terrified shinobi, as the bandages unravelled to reveal the sword's gaping mouth, fangs at the ready.

"That's enough, Kisame." came a soft voice, as Konan floated down beside the former Kiri-nin. "Pain warned you not to wander around the village, did he not?" The sharkman shrugged in response. "Itachi was always the one to follow the rules, but let's be honest, they're mostly guidelines, am I right?"

"Do not test our leaders patience any further. Where is Itachi?" she asked, raising the two of them into the air on a platform of paper, the gathered shinobi staring after them. "A-amazing... Tenshi-sama... she doesn't even flinch when faced with someone like that." "Tenshi-sama is so calm and dignified-"

"What do you mean he's getting surgery?"

SCENE BREAK

Deba sighed deeply as he walked up to the Iwa border, target in sight. _'This is not going to end well for us. Still, if it gets me closer to Sasori, it's worth it in the end.' _he considered, before stepping out into view.

"Deidara, of Iwagakure's explosio- FUCK!" he began, before a pair of white clay birds flew towards him, detonating a couple of feet away. Deba rolled away, landing in a crouched position. As the next barrage began, he threw out a hand, near-invisible chakra threads snapping into place around the explosives and diverting them away. "So much for diplomacy..."

The blond Iwa-nin grinned widely, the mouths in his palms twitching as he prepared his next barrage. "So, the old man hired someone from outside the village? Doesn't matter. I'm not going back to be gawked at like a freak! I'm an artist!" he cried loudly, calling forth a dragon shaped from the clay. "C2! Art is a blast!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Deba groaned, charging his opponent as he ducked under the dragon's clumsy lunges, clutching a trench knife in his left hand. "I didn't come here looking for a fight, Deidara-san! If you want to talk this out, that'd be great!"

"What's the matter, old timer?" chuckled the Iwa native as the dragon fired an explosive orb of clay, knocking his opponent out of melee range. Deba's eye twitched irritably. "I'm not old you little bastard! I'm not even forty yet!" he snarled, opening his cloak to reveal dozens of sheathed kunai. Deidara blinked, confused, as Deba held out his arms, fingers splayed.

"Show some respect! Hyaku Yaiba no Mai!" he grunted, threading the kunai rings with chakra threads, raising them to hover ominously above him. "Hashiri!" he smirked, directing the kunai at high speed towards the dragon, piercing it over a dozen times. With its limbs severed, it collapsed to the ground and detonated, sending both shinobi sprawling, and _completely _destroying the road they had been on.

"Hyaku Yaibi no Mai: Ne Kakusan!" Deba called, using the kunai to anchor his sliding, before propelling himself forwards, threads clearly visible at his fingers. "And now... I think you need a timeout! Fuuton:Shibariito!" he smirked, binding the younger nuke-nin with white threads. "Don't struggle. I can cut you to pieces with this technique. Now, _as I was trying to say_, I have an offer for you. My colleagues and I could use someone with your specific talents. What do you say?"

Deidara sagged, flinching at the cuts he'd received from his bindings. "Do I have a choice?"

SCENE BREAK

"Hey, Asuma-sensei," greeted Shikamaru, as he sat beside the man's bed. "Ino and Chouji are keeping an eye on the bridge, so I'm back here for the next few hours. I guess that's pretty obvious, huh?" he laughed hollowly, as the man beside him remained unconscious. "I heard Tsunami-san managed to get some fluids into you earlier... so that's good." he muttered lamely, rubbing his forehead anxiously.

"This is _big_, sensei. For the first time in my life, I have no idea what to do. What the hell are we doing? We don't know anything aabout what Gatou could be planning, or who he has working for him. I'm so, so scared, and Ino and Chouji are depending on me, but I just... can't _do _anything." he gasped, ignoring the burning in his eyes.

"...za..." Shikamaru snapped to attention as he heard the whisper. "S-sensei? Tsunami-san, please come quick! He's waking up!" he called, pausing as a hand grabbed his wrist feebly. "What is it, sensei?" he asked, kneeling down next to the uncomfortably pale Asuma.

"He's... not... he's not dead."

SCENE BREAK

"Rise and shine, kids!" Iruka piped up cheerily, as his students grimaced at the sight of the dawning sun. "I hope you're ready, because we'll be running for a few hours. Now, pack up and I'll put your stuff in storage." Naruto paused.

"Wait, you mean all this time, you could have put our stuff into a scroll, and you still made us carry it all around with us?" he asked, incredulous. Sasuke was simply glaring while Sakura seemed ready to break something. "Well..." chuckled their sensei. "It was an effective method to train your endurance and speed..." he grinned, as sharingan eyes stared angrily at him. _'Sheesh, if looks could kill...'_

"So, you all ready?" he smiled, unrolling a sealing scroll attached to his belt as the four of them sullenly dropped their packs beside him. "Now, when the seal is drawn correctly, you just apply the right amount of chakra, and..." PFOOF! The packs vanished in a burst of smoke.

"Sweet." Naruto said approvingly. "What happens if it's not drawn correctly?" Iruka continued his 'teacher mode' as he placed the scroll in a watertight cylinder to protect it. "That's a good question, with a not very satisfying answer. Fuinjutsu is seen as the most complex of the shinobi arts for a reason. One small mistake in the sealing process and literally anything can happen. Of course, the most likely outcomes are nothing whatsoever, or a large explosion. For that matter, most kinds of explosive tags originated as failed attempts at other seals."

"Awesome..." Naruto whispered, eyes wide. Sasuke immediately grabbed him and turned him around. "I know what you want to say, and NO. You are not permitted, in any way, shape or form, to experiment with sealing within five miles of the compound."

"I wasn't going to ask that!" "..." "Okay, fine, I was totally going to ask that and I hate you for shutting down all my ideas! Let's just get going!" pouted the Uzumaki. The first few minutes of their journey were spent in a relative silence, aside from Iruka offering his kunoichi student a couple of extra soldier pills, 'just in case'.

"...Sasuke?" "What is it, Uzumaki?" "...You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"I'm not mad, I'm just frustrated." "...I'm sorry I said I hated you." "I know. I'm sorry for making you feel bad."

"This is why people think you two are in a relationship, you know." observed Sakura, completely deadpan. SPLA-DOOSH!

The two male genin tripped on... the water, apparently, and skimmed across the waves a couple of times before managing to right themselves. "THEY THINK _WHAT?!_" they yelled in unison. "Oh my Log- how can they- _WHAT?!_" Sasuke stammered, as Naruto pulled some very perplexed fish out of his pockets.

"I know, right, it's like dating your brother or something." commented Naruto, removing his now sopping jacket and trying to wring it out. "I mean, we could both do worse." he continued amiably, as Sasuke grew increasingly flustered.

"No! We are not talking about this!" he declared, trying to wave away the conversation. Naruto frowned. "What, you think you're too good for me or something?" "That is not what I'm saying and you know that- _why _is this a conversation we're having? No more of this!" "No, no, you think you're better than me!"

Naruto was somehow maintaining a pout and crossed arms while moving at speed. "And don't think I haven't seen those looks you give me, undressing me with your eyes." "If you were a woman it the time, it doesn't make it gay!" "Keep telling yourself that, honey." "WE DO NOT HAVE PET NAMES!"

"I am hurt, Sasu-chan!" "FUCK YOU!" "I bet you'd love that, wouldn't you?" "I'll kill you, Uzumaki. Don't think I won't." Naruto gave a shit-eating grin. "Kinky, aren't you?" "That's it!" Sasuke snarled as he chased the cackling Uzumaki across the water.

Sakura sighed and moved slightly faster to catch up with her sensei. "I'll say again, this is why people think they're gay." Iruka just laughed.

SCENE BREAK

"Helloooo, Nami no Kuni!" cheered a slightly bruised and very damp Naruto. The rest of Team Seven looked on in concern. "He's been saying that every five minutes since we got here. How hard did you hit him, Sasuke?" Sakura scolded, as the Uchiha stared grimly at his teammate/occasional best friend.

"Not. Hard. Enough." he hissed. Naruto turned back, giving them all a big smile. "That's what she said!" THUD. "Well, that's helpful. If he's still unconscious by dinner, wake him up." Iruka sighed. He was not paid nearly enough for this.

...

Done!

Okay, next chapter should get us to the battle on the bridge, featuring:

Iruka VS Zabuza!

Team 7 VS Haku!

Team 10 VS Gatou!

Oh, hell yeah.

You know the score. Leave a review if there's anything you want to say!


	16. Readying

'Nother chapter! Can I just reiterate, I love the hell out of you guys. Heading back to college at the mo, so expect updates to slow down for a while.

Stuff:

jibber jabber: While it won't be every chapter, the whole 'this is why people think you're gay' thing will definintely be revisited. For the record, though, they're really not, but how can a prankster like Naruto give up a chance to troll Sasuke? As to the chibis, I was actually going to do something like what you suggested after the Wave arc is complete, sort of an interlude before we move into the chuunin exams. Finally, regarding Itachi... he has a few ideas... hehehe...

...

Story!

...

Team Seven made their way through the small village, Naruto trying and failing to bandage his own head. "I really hate you sometimes, Sasuke." The Uchiha simply scoffed. "We both know that's not true. You're too naive to hate anyone."

"Let's not have another argument, boys," placated Iruka. "We're here representing Konoha, and we all want to make a good impression, right?" The two boys nodded tersely, the unspoken message hanging in the air. _'This isn't over, Uzumaki/Sasuke.'_

"There's the bridge!" Sakura called, drawing their attention. The half-finished structure loomed ominously in the mist as they approached, the distant sounds of construction echoing across the water.

"Whoa," the Uzumaki summarised. "Do you think Asuma-sensei and his team are over there?" Iruka nodded. "If not, they're staying at the client's home, I'd bet. Let's just have a look around for one of them here before we get ourselves lost. Okay?" he half-pleaded, as Naruto charged down the bridge, calling out to the members of Team Ten.

"I swear, that kid's going to be the death of me..."

"Hey, Ino-chan!" Ino snapped to attention at the call and turned to see a grinning Naruto, followed closely by the rest of his team. "Thank Kami you're here, Iruka-sensei!" she cried, ignoring the three genin. Naruto held back an irritated Sakura as Sasuke felt a strange sense of relief. Iruka, however, was concerned.

"Ino, what happened? Where are the rest of your team?" he asked, frowning. The girl's eyes watered and she grabbed the front of Iruka's flak jacket, sobbing as she told them about what happened.

"...and now Asuma-sensei is in a coma and we don't know what to do!" she finished, trying and failing to dry her tears, before Sakura grabbed her in a hug. "Don't worry, Ino. We'll take over from here, right, Iruka-sensei?" The jounin nodded gravely, pointing at his blond student.

"Naruto! Give us a defensive line here, while we see what we can do about Asuma-san." Naruto nodded, calling up over a dozen identical copies. "Sasuke, you stay here with the clones, keep watch over Tazuna. Myself, Naruto and Sakura will head back to the village for now with Ino."

"Hai, sensei." the Uchiha agreed, sharingan whirling into view. "Send a messenger clone if you need me." Iruka smiled sadly. _'Acting like kids one second, then totally professional the next. I hope you three can stay this innocent after all this is over... two chances of that, though; slim and none.'_

SCENE BREAK

Itachi coughed harshly, grimacing as blood spattered on his hand. Tsunade and Jiraiya (having a supernatural ability to detect when the blonde Sannin needed him) stood ready, though the medic flinched away at the sight of the blood. "Get your shirt off." she muttered, Jiraiya smirking as he heard.

"Well, Tsunade-hime, I should have known you liked younger men after all those times you rejected a world-wise man like myself. Still, even I think you're being a tad forwards with tha-" THOOM! A closed fist occupied the space where the Toad Sage had once stood, as Itachi almost imperceptibly paled at the sight of a shinobi even stronger than himself being so easily dealt with.

_'So this must be what Kaa-san meant by a strong woman,' _he thought idly, remembering how his mother had tried to set himself and his brother up with various girls in their childhoods. _'Otouto, if you do actually manage to find yourself a strong girl... I feel sorry for you.' _ he shuddered slightly, both from the cold of the safe room they were in and the male Sannin's pained groans.

"If we're all ready to act our ages, we can begin." the medic pressed on, picking up a needle filled with a pale fluid. "Now, you may feel a slight pinch from the anaesthetic." Itachi dipped his head in assent. _'I can handle pain, and it can't be too ba- SWEET SON OF A PUS-SPEWING WHORE, THAT BURNS!' _he screamed internally, with only the slight twitch of an eyebrow betraying his external stoicism. Tsunade noticed, however, and a sadistic smile appeared on her face.

"The big, bad Uchiha Itachi afraid of a little needle? Don't worry, the formula should kick in fairly quickly." Itachi blinked tiredly as his vision started swimming. _'Pretty lights... pretty lady- no, that's Tsunade-sama, show her some respect!' _he began swaying from side to side as the two voices in his head began arguing. _'Just because she's helping us doesn't mean we're all friends now! - I'm so lonely... - No, we are Itachi, of the Uchiha clan. We will not cry. We will not cry! - Waaaahh... - Screw it, I'm sad too!'_

The two Sannin looked on as Uchiha Itachi, slayer of the Uchiha clan and all around scary missing-nin, curled up into the foetal position and wailed. "And I'll never find true love!" he concluded, before sprawling unconscious on the operating table.

"You know, there's not a lot that surprises me at this point," Jiraiya pointed out. "But I did not expect that reaction. How strong a dose did you give him, Tsu-hime?" The medic smirked before replying. "Well, I knew Mikoto was training her kids to resist poisons, so I had to use enough to overcome the resistance he should have had. _Maybe _I went a little overboard."

Jiraiya just chuckled. "You are a scary, scary woman, Tsu-hime. Remind me never to push you too far." She gave him a sweet smile. "You might be a little late there." she crooned, gesturing at the sake he'd been sipping. "Wait, what?" THUD.

Tsunade sighed, pushing her hair out of her face. "Finally I can work in piece."

SCENE BREAK

"So, to sum up, Asuma is in desperate need of medical attention, you three have been running yourselves ragged trying to protect him and your client, and the Demon of Kirigakure is going to attack either here or the bridge, most likely in the next couple of days." Iruka frowned, feeling the beginnings of a migraine. Shikamaru had delivered Asuma's message to the rest of the Konoha-nin upon their arrival.

"What do you think we should do, Iruka-sensei?" the Nara asked, looking uncharacteristically determined. Iruka stayed silent for some time, trying to figure it out himself. "...We stand our ground. Naruto, give us a swarm of messenger clones and send half to Konoha, the other half to the outpost we were at. We could really do with some more backup."

"It's not like it matters. You'll all die anyway." came the sullen voice of Inari. Naruto looked around at Team Ten, pointing a thumb at the young boy. "Who the hell is this brat?"

"No-one can beat Gatou. He's got too many soldiers." The Uzumaki grinned in response. " I haven't met any group who can outnumber me!" he boasted to the unimpressed kid. Inari glared at the happy-looking genin. "Who do you think you are, acting the hero? You don't stand a chance! Why can't you all just leave?" he near-screamed, the blond's expression souring.

"What is wrong with you, kid? Just because you're up against someone strong, you think you can give up right away? Newsflash, life is hard! If you don't work your ass off, you won't get anywhere!" he barked, even as the rest of the assembled genin looked on in surprise. Naruto was almost never this... _vehement _about things.

Inari was tearing up at this point, but continued his tirade anyway. "Don't think you can lecture me! What does someone like you know about suffering? Nothing! You don't know what it's like to lose someone!" Even as he spat his protests, the atmosphere in the room shifted completely, Naruto practically radiating anger.

"You... how _fucking _dare you!" he snarled ferally, fists clenched. "You think you're the only one who's lost someone important? You think your suffering is that much worse than anyone else's? Grow the hell up. You've got a grandfather and a mother who love you. Do you care, do you even _fucking realise _that there are kids out there who would kill to even _know _who their parents _were_? No, you don't!" he raged, shrugging off Iruka's attempts to calm him down.

"Just live in your own _fucking _tragedy, then! But don't you dare bitch about people actually trying to make a difference!" he finished, storming towards the door. Iruka raised a hand to try and stop him, catching only the quickly abandoned jacket. "Naruto, where are you going?" "To _break things_!" SLAM!

In the confusion that followed, Iruka wound up approaching a sniffling Inari and explaining Naruto's actions, or trying to, at least.

"Naruto's not actually angry at you. But he looks at you and sees the kid he used to be, before he started making friends. He never knew his parents, and he had to learn very young that no-one was going to solve all his problems for him. He just doesn't like to see people like Gatou get away with what he's doing to this country. Am I making any kind of sense?" he half-laughed, patting the boy on the back comfortingly.

"How... how can he be so happy, if he's lost so much?" Inari whispered. Iruka smiled sadly. "Because he made a promise to himself, a long time ago, that he wouldn't let bad experiences ruin his life. He decided to laugh, because it helped him get through things. Eventually, he found people who cared about him, and now, he's really smiling, without the pain of loneliness holding him down."

Inari stayed silent, but he'd stopped sniffling at this point, as Iruka headed off to find his missing student.

SCENE BREAK

Naruto panted harshly, looking around at the clearing he'd made in the middle of the forest. "Right, that's prob'ly good enough for now." he grinned, wiping the sweat off his brow as he stared at the splintered pieces of trees scattered about. "Heh, looks like we won't be needing firewood for a while." he quipped, sighing as he realised no-one was around to hear it.

A twig snapped behind him, Naruto flying towards the sound, kunai in hand. "I'm sorry, shinobi-san," gasped the young girl who'd startled him. Naruto, embarassed, dropped the blade back into his holster. "Hehehe... Sorry about that. I guess I'm a little antsy with all that's going on." he offered lamely. She smiled disarmingly at him, Naruto fighting a blush at the sight. _'Just be cool, Naruto...'_

"What do you mean, shinobi-san?" the girl questioned, seemingly unaware of Naruto's thoughts. The blond paused for a second before shrugging and gesturing widely. "Everything. I mean, you've got Gatou and his hired goons treating everyone in the village like dirt, and they've all just given up and accepted it. It really gets on my nerves, you know? I mean, if you don't try and change things, they'll just keep getting worse, right?" he smiled sadly, surprising the newcomer.

"I know exactly what you mean, shinobi-san. My friends and I have been trying to change things for ourselves for years. That's why I'm out here, my friend was injured and I'm collecting herbs to help him recover." Naruto stood to attention, grinning. "In that case, I'll help. It's pretty dangerous for civilians to be wandering around with Gatou's thugs, right?"

"True, shinobi-san, very true." she laughed softly. The Uzumaki grinned, embarassed. "Call me Naruto. Shinobi-san sounds too formal for me, erm..." he trailed off, realising he didn't know the girl's name. "My name is Haku, Naruto-san." she smiled, turning back into the forest and picking up a plant from the floor. Naruto followed eagerly, ignoring the fact that he had no idea what he was doing.

"Haku-chan?" he piped up, after several minutes of collecting. "Why _were _you out here by yourself?" he asked, brows furrowed. None of the villagers he'd seen were inclined to go anywhere near the woods, or anywhere at all really, what with mercenaries swarming the area. Haku frowned momentarily before replying. "Because it's my duty, Naruto-san. I have someone important to me, who I must protect. I believe that when you have someone precious to you, you can become truly strong."

Naruto fell silent, thinking about all the people he cared about: the Hokage, the Ichirakus, the Uchiha kids, Iruka-sensei... the list went on. He remembered his fights against Kazuya and his brother, pulling out power from the demon sealed in him to protect his friends. "I know what you mean, Haku-chan. Believe me." he smiled, as Haku nodded approvingly, closing up the basket she held and bowing to the boy.

"I'd best get going, Naruto-san," she said, turning away from him as he waved cheerily. "But just so you know, I'm a boy."

Iruka would soon find his favourite student paralysed in the middle of a clearing, muttering to himself. As they approached Tazuna's house, Iruka could have sworn he heard the blond say something like "...cuter than any of the girls I know!" Much as he loved the kid, Naruto could be really strange sometimes.

SCENE BREAK

"Jiraiya, hold him down!" Tsunade shouted, as the unconscious Itachi began convulsing on the operating table. The white-haired sage moved to do as ordered, summoning up a Tsuchi Bunshin to assist. "What the hell is happening, Tsunade?"

The medic wiped a drop of sweat from her forehead, hands glowing with green medical chakra as she focused. "The blockages in his lungs are all linked in with his chakra network. Trying to get rid of them sent his chakra circulatory system haywire, leading to a seizure. Last time I saw something like this was back in the second world war. Those bastards from Kusa, the sensor nins." she grunted, forcing the teenager's system back to stability.

"You can let him go now, just make sure his airways are clear." she eventually panted. Jiraiya released his grip on the uncomfortably thin Uchiha, dispersing his clone into a pile of dirt. "I haven't heard you talk about the war before, Tsunade." he commented, staring sadly at the young man on the table.

"I don't ever _want_ to talk about it, Jiraiya, you know that." she panted, pulling out a soldier pill and swallowing it. The man offered a hand to help her up, but she waved him off, stumbling slightly. "Hime, in case you forgot, I was there too. It kills me to see what it did to you. What Dan's-" "Don't!" she snapped, cutting him off mid-sentence. "I can't, I _can't_, talk about that. Just please, give this to sensei and _leave me alone._" she pleaded, handing him Itachi's note as she left the room.

Jiraiya stared after her, solemnly. "I could never leave you alone when we were kids, hime. How can I let you suffer alone now?" he muttered, flipping open the note and skimming through it. Silently, he pulled up a chair and sat down next to Itachi, waiting for the anaesthetic to wear off.

_'When you wake up, kid, I'm going to find out everything you know about Konan, Yahiko and Nagato. I'm not going to lose anyone else if I can help it.'_

SCENE BREAK

Iruka rushed ahead to the bridge, a foul sensation permeating the air. Sakura, Sasuke and the genin of Team Ten followed as closely as they could. Naruto had volunteered to stay behind at Tazuna's and guard the slowly-recovering Asuma, as well as the bridge builder's family. While Iruka was wary of leaving any of his genin alone, Naruto was quite possibly the only shinobi in the world who couldn't be outnumbered. Coming to a halt at the bridge the jounin found his worst fears realised, Momochi Zabuza standing in the midst of a ring of bridge workers, all on the ground begging for mercy. Iruka gulped as the genin fell into formation behind him, clenching his fists.

"You five get the workers to safety as quickly as possible," he instructed, staring intently at the swordsman. "I will deal with Zabuza."

...

Done!

... I know I promised we'd get to the bridge battle, but I wanted to establish that this kind of stuff did still happen in this story, like meeting Haku or Inari getting chewed out.

For those of you worrying about this story being too much like canon, I have plans in mind; this is how the next couple of arcs are looking;

mission  
exams through to Invasion of Konoha

Then we'll be reaching the first massive divergence from the main story, with the arc I am tentatively referring to as "The Uzumaki Rescue Arc".

Good times ahead, guys! R&R!


	17. Plans in Motion

New chapter! Getting closer to the fun stuff, guys!

Stuff to answer:

Veradon Chimera: I'm going to try and break up the paragraphs a bit more and see if it works any better.

...

Story!

...

Zabuza cocked his head to the side, Kubikirihouchou resting on his shoulder. "Well, this is interesting. I wondered who Konoha would send to retrieve the Sarutobi and his brats," he commented, gesturing to the shaking members of Team Ten. "But you, I don't know. Why is someone who never even made it into the Bingo Book coming after me?"

Iruka stared him down, moving slowly forwards. "Momochi Zabuza. Demon of Kirigakure. Slaughtered an entire graduating class in order to become a genin. I don't suppose you'd be willing to talk this out peacefully?"

The swordsman blinked. "I... don't think I've ever heard that before. I mean, obviously I'm still going to kill the old man, but nice try on your part," he replied, picking up a struggling Tazuna with his free hand. "Sorry about this, old man. Nothing personal." Whatever Zabuza had expected, the bridge builder smirking was not one of them.

"Thanks for not hitting me too hard, you bastard! That would have ruined everything." he cackled, a hissing noise coming from a sheet of paper in his pocket. The swordsman threw the man as hard as he could over the railing, the explosion coming a split-second later. Zabuza turned back just in time to block the flying kick Iruka had launched, skidding backwards across the wet surface of the bridge.

"What the fuck was that?" he snarled, seeing the genin in their combat stances some distance away. Iruka allowed himself a quick grin as he closed the gap, trying to prevent the Kiri-nin from using his oversized weapon effectively.

"Kage bunshin replacements for all the workers. Tazuna hasn't been here in days." Zabuza managed to backhand the Konoha jounin away, keeping him at bay with a flurry of sword swipes, barely catching the edge of the man's flak jacket, but succeeding in opening up a space between them.

"You called up that many Kage bunshin?" the nuke-nin asked, making the unique hand sign for the Kirigakure no Jutsu. "How the hell are you still standing?" Iruka closed his eyes, focusing on his echolocation technique. Keeping careful track of his opponent's movements behind him, Iruka elected to wait before answering. _'Now should be good.'_

"Honestly, that wasn't me. I don't even know the jutsu," he admitted, 'seeing' the other man tighten his grip on the giant cleaver. "That would be the work of one of my students." he smiled, hearing a muffled thud as the master assassin lost his footing. Iruka simply pulled out a kunai and lunged, only to be forced back by a wide swipe.

"Nice try, but no genin could pull off something like that." Zabuza grunted, trying to regain his composure. A sudden fireball left him jumping backwards on instinct, as the pinkette and the... Uchiha, damn, decided to join the battle, the girl using some technique to draw the mist into a sphere in her hand, throwing it with surprising force at the mist-nin.

"Haku, get out here and deal with the pests! The jounin is mine to deal with!" he called, the hunter-nin fading into existence, senbon flying towards Team Ten, who vanished in puffs of smoke.

"Wait, how long were they clones?" Sasuke asked, bewildered, as he and Sakura blocked a few test shots with their kunai. The pinkette kept her eyes on the enemy as she replied, sounding equally confused.

"I have no idea. I hope they know what they're doing."

SCENE BREAK

Shikamaru inhaled sharply as Chouji stepped on a branch with a clearly audible snap. "Alright guys, keep it down. Naruto promised to buy us some time to get this done. If we can capture Gatou, we can put an end to things right here and now." he whispered, his teammates nodding hesitantly in agreement. Ino made a hand seal, focusing intently on the area nearby. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she extended her perceptions outwards.

"Okay, there are a lot of people moving around underground. From the looks of it, none of them are shinobi, but I can't get anything more than that." she gasped after a minute, massaging her temples. Extending her soul to possess someone was one thing, but without a host to link with, the Yamanaka techniques were the perfect recipe for one hell of a headache.

Shikamaru closed his eyes, making a circle with his hands. He'd done something reckless, completely ignoring everything he'd been taught about strategy. Then, Naruto was the last person you'd call 'tactical' and he'd already faced down at least three nuke-nin before this fustercluck of a mission. Wait, fustercluck? Dear Log, he needed to start napping again. He was getting sleep-deprived.

"Okay, we do this as quietly as we can. Ino, you head in first, use your techniques to disarm anyone we run into. I'll follow along and hold them off with the Kagemane, and Chouji be our main line of defense. Ino-Shika-Cho standard tactics." he concluded. _'If we had a wider range of abilities to work with, we'd be golden. I just hope I'm not leading you guys into a trap...'_

SCENE BREAK

Naruto sighed, staring out the window as he gave Asuma the chance to dress himself for the first time since his collapse. It seemed like the right thing to do, to give the man some privacy. Maybe Hinata-chan's tips on etiquette and stuff were actually sinking in.

A crash from downstairs, along with a jolt in the back of his mind, alerted the Uzumaki to the appearance of intruders. Cursing, he called up a trio to replace the clone who got dispelled. _'Well, fuck, that's what we get for lightening up the defences here. Watch out, assholes, Uzumaki Naruto's'a fuck your shit up!'_

Inari stood in the kitchen, clutching a knife in his shaking hands. "Y-you..." he stammered, staring up at the sneering mercenaries holding his mother hostage, the words from the Konoha shinobi echoing in his head.

_"It's a pain trying to fight someone like Gatou, but it's even more annoying if someone like that just gets to do whatever they want." "He had to learn very young that no-one was going to solve all his problems for him... He made a promise to himself, a long time ago, that he wouldn't let bad experiences ruin his life." "Newsflash, life is hard! If you don't work your ass off, you won't get anywhere!" _Gritting his teeth, he charged forwards, thinking of how Kaiza had rescued him from the sea.

"Don't you dare hurt my mom!" he screamed, the edge of his blade biting the man's leg before he backhanded the child, Tsunami crying out in fear. The 'samurai' pulled out his sword, addressing Inari directly.

"Alright, you little shit! I was gonna be nice and leave you alone, but now? Now I'm gonna take you as my hostage instead, so I don't really need your mom, now do I-" he found himself cut off by a puff of smoke, which faded to reveal a stern-looking Naruto, arms folded.

"You shouldn't have done that, prick. Now I'm gonna have to break you." he stated, as calmly as if he were discussing the weather. The man threw his head back to laugh, before a hand grabbed it, slamming his face into the ground. He was unconscious almost instantly.

Naruto, in the meantime, had turned to face Inari. "Kid, what you just did was incredibly stupid and reckless." he said, as Inari stared resolutely at the ground. He blinked in surprise when the genin ruffled his hair, laughing. "Man, I was wrong about you. You risked your life to save your mom. That makes you pretty damn brave in my book."

Inari stared up in surprise as a pale but steady Asuma made his way carefully downstairs. "Naruto, we have to get out of here. If they're determined to take hostages, then more of those thugs will be here soon." he said, clutching one of his trench knives. The Uzumaki nodded his agreement, turning to Tsunami and Inari.

"Tsunami-san, you and Inari better get going. I'll leave you a clone squadron to keep guard. You too, Asuma-sensei," he insisted calmly, waiting for the (he assumed) inevitable protests.

"You're probably right, Naruto. As I am, I'd just get in Iruka's way. Besides, you're the only one that knows where my team have wandered off to. I'll keep watch over these two while you head to the bridge," the Sarutobi half-smiled, seeing the look of surprise on the blond's face. "No need to be so shocked. Just because I outrank you doesn't mean your ideas are automatically worse. In a situation as messed up as this one, rank doesn't really matter all that much."

Naruto shook his head to clear his thoughts, calling up some support with his specialty technique. "Okay, Asuma-sensei. Inari, you take care of him and your mom for me, right?" he smiled, as the boy nodded gravely, evidently taking his words as an order. "I'm off to kick Zabuza's ass!" whooped the genin, leaping off the windowsill to take off at a sprint.

SCENE BREAK

Shikamaru groaned as Chouji managed to knock out the last of Gatou's bodyguards. He'd never had to hold multiple targets in his Kagemane for that long before. When he got back to Konoha, he was going to have to bug his father for some more training. That was going to be all kinds of not fun. Still, back to business.

"Gatou. I think we should have a little _talk _about your business plans." he said, stretching out the stiffness in his neck. Even he had to grin at the terrified look on the corrupt businessman's face. Ino lacked the same level of restraint, grinning like a madwoman as she stepped forwards.

"Now don't worry, Gatou-san," she almost _purred_, eager to make the man even more uncomfortable. "We'll get everything we need nice and quick and be on our merry way."

SCENE BREAK

Iruka weaved and ducked, diverting the sword strikes as best he could with his kunai. Zabuza, for his part, seemed to be growing more and more frustrated by the scarred jounin's insistence on defense. "What do you think you're doing? You haven't even tried to go on the offensive since your genin joined the fight." he grunted, kicking Iruka in the side as their blades clashed overhead. Iruka barrel rolled out of range of the sword's tip as it was thrust towards him.

"Funny thing, even though we're supposed to be spies and assassins, most shinobi have specialties that are best suited for straight up combat. Even you're as famous for your Suiton ninjutsu and swordplay as you are for assassinations," Iruka observed, moving further towards the unfinished end of the bridge. "If that kind of raw power was all that mattered, the shinobi world would be a pretty different place. You need to control your power, use it tactically, or anyone can take you out before you get the chance to use any of it."

"Does this have a point, or are you trying to bore me to death?" the swordsman grunted, smashing through a stack of timbers as the teacher frowned.

"It's quite rude to interrupt, Zabuza-san," Iruka noted disapprovingly, ignoring the feral growls emanating from the Demon of Kiri. "My point is, on paper, I don't stand a chance of beating you. But in reality, I don't have to beat you." Zabuza blinked as something moved in his peripheral vision. Iruka continued the impromptu lesson.

"If I can't win a fair fight, all I need to do is cheat," he smiled pleasantly, as he made a ram seal. "Goodbye, Zabuza-san." he said, dropping backwards towards the sea as the end of the bridge was engulfed in an explosion, flames visible as far back as the village.

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke backflipped away from a barrage of senbon, Sakura pulling in to guard his back. "What do we do, Sasuke-kun? If he's this fast, we won't be able to even land a hit." she hissed under her breath, trying to keep their enemy from hearing. Sasuke's eyes darted back and forth, barely able to follow the hunter-nin's movements, even with the aid of the sharingan.

"I say we try to catch him off-guard. There's a pattern to what he's doing- duck!" the Uchiha prompted, sending the senbon off-course with a low-powered burst of fire. "When I give you the signal, try to grab him. If you can slow him down, I think I can take him out of the fight. Ready?" he enquired, as they began circling around, still back-to-back.

"Hai, Sasuke-kun," the girl agreed, throwing a handful of shuriken, which were almost lazily deflected, the last of them being plucked from the air, bladed edges be damned. Sakura's eye twitched in irritation. _'This guy's just showing off at this point...'_

"I do not wish to harm you," their opponent stated coolly, voice barely rising above a whisper. "If you are willing to surrender, Zabuza-sama and I will complete our mission and leave you in peace." he continued, dodging the pair's strikes with ease. A sudden explosion from the other end of the bridge caught the attention of all three.

Sakura growled in anger, receiving a quick nod as she glanced towards Sasuke, throwing a punch with as much force as she could muster in response. "Like hell we'll believe that after what you two did to Asuma-sensei! No way you're getting your hands on Tazuna!" However, the young man seemed to flow around her blow, grabbing her wrist in a cold hand.

"If you will not surrender, then I will have to close my heart and-" Haku began, before an enraged Sasuke burst forwards, his entire arm sparking.

"Get your hand off her! Raihadou!" he cried, managing to score his first proper blow of the fight, sending the nuke-nin skidding across the wet concrete. "I swore, on my family's memory," he snarled, not even noticing that a third tomoe had sprouted in each eye. "I will not let anyone I care about die. So if you're going to hurt my team..."

"You're going to have to go through me."


	18. Plans Collapsing

New chapter! I thought I'd hate working through the wave mission after all the times it's been done, but I'm actually enjoying these big fights and stuff. Also, 15'000 views? Holy crap, that is a lot of people. You guys are awesome!

Stuff being answered:

princessbinas: Just wait till Zabuza actually sees what Naruto is really capable of! I have vague plans for Deidara meeting with Team 7, but not yet. I might do a one-shot with him as their sensei if I can get it to work.

MuffinMan9223: Remember that Sasuke and the chibis were more or less raised by the ANBU for five years in this fic. He's probably heard something along those lines a couple of times.

euroteres: I enjoy giving Iruka some of the spotlight. I mean, the guy managed to survive the Invasion of Pein arc while rescuing injured comrades on the frontlines. Dude deserves more chances to be badass. Plus, having him give lectures to his opponents is both hilarious and functional. Get your opponent mad enough and they're bound to screw up at some point. Unless they're Naruto, in which case, you deserve what you get for angering the guy who stops the Kyuubi from eating everyone.

...

Story!

...

Iruka landed on the surface of the ocean, eyes flicking left and right as he searched for his opponent. With any luck, the swordsman would be injured enough to make subduing him easier. A bubble of water catching him in its clutches put that idea right out the window. Iruka managed to swallow an oxygen pill as a burnt and bruised Zabuza climbed out of the water, one hand in the orb of water.

"That... was painful. But what really pisses me off is what you did to Kubikirihouchou," he spat, his other hand raising the remaining half of the blade to point at the less-than-ecstatic Iruka. "I'm going to have to take your blood to repair- FUCKER!" he roared, losing his composure as the Konoha-nin darted forwards and snapped his jaws around Zabuza's hand. The water prison fell apart, Iruka jumping back, well out of slashing range. Zabuza stared at him accusingly. "You _bit _me!"

Iruka shrugged. "I also tried to kill you with a massive explosion. But it bodes well for me that the biting is what you're actually upset abou-" he started, before a water dragon slammed past him, narrowly missing his head. Zabuza followed up with another barrage of furious blade swipes.

"Why can't I hit you? I know I'm faster, I can see that, but you're just... Wait. Are you using Suiton streaming on your own body? Who the fuck does that?" he asked, bewildered, managing to land a kick and send Iruka bouncing off the surface. Iruka smirked, even as he had to dodge a barrage of water projectiles, countering with his own Mizukachi.

"I have a civilian with an eidetic memory, perfect chakra control and a possible split personality on my team. She's the most normal of all of us," he explained cheerily, throwing some shuriken just past his opponent, the trailing wires wrapping around the loop in the sword. The shuriken (with some assistance from a subtle ninjutsu he'd picked up) then closed a loop around the bridge's support pillar. "If I wasn't as crazy as I am, I'd be failing them as their sensei."

Zabuza simply held tighter, completely neutralising Iruka's attempts to disarm him. "And if you were a little more sane you'd realise that holding both of us in place was a grave miscalculation. Suiryuudan!" he roared, unleashing a smaller version of his earlier attack. Iruka managed to dodge it, dropping the wire, before Zabuza jumped back onto the bridge.

"Don't think I'm forgetting about you, but I have business to attend to. Catch me if you can, no-name shinobi." he taunted, taking off at full speed even as Iruka landed on the bridge, planks splintering underfoot as he forced himself onwards.

_'No way I can keep up with him, even if he is getting tired faster than me,' _he thought, before turning his attention to the pools littering the bridge. Readying as much chakra as he could spare, Iruka grinned. _'This is going to work either really well, or really badly. Time to see just how much I've improved!'_

SCENE BREAK

Naruto sped forwards, dimly aware of the civilians fleeing the streets to hide from the battle that was brewing, even at this distance. Seeing a man with a katana threatening a mother and her children, he slowed to what to him was a moderate jog, grabbing the offending party by his hair and flipping him onto the ground, the blade snapping beside him. All that the civilians saw was a flash of golden hair and silver clothes.

Satisfied, Naruto took to the rooftops, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on at the battlefield. The bridge was barely visible from his location, but he could still make out a few specks that he assumed were his teammates. _'I just hope you're all still okay when I get there... Shikamaru, whatever you were planning, it'd better work!'_

Having a sudden brainwave, he made a few handsigns, exchanging himself with a pile of bricks left on a ruined balcony, while still running at full speed. _'I'll be there in a couple minutes, guys, don't worry! I'll kick that nuke-nin bastard all the way back to Kiri!'_

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke fired off a Housenka as Sakura moved in to catch their opponent. Both were caught off-guard by the sudden appearance of pale walls, which absorbed their strikes harmlessly. _'What the... Ice?' _Sasuke wondered, before trying a fireball, hoping to melt the barriers. A burst of steam later, and a few water droplets fell to the ground, the walls virtually unaffected.

"Sasuke-kun, watch out!" Sakura interjected, throwing a kunai over his shoulder, forcing Haku to jump back instead of grabbing the Uchiha. Sasuke darted forwards to land beside her, muttering his thanks as he kept his eyes on the hunter-nin.

_'Shit, got careless. Good thing Sakura was here to keep me focused.' _he mused, wondering whether he should say something else to her. The thought quickly fell by the wayside as Haku engaged them both in combat, forcing them to pull their punches or risk hitting one another. Haku began speaking again, reassured that neither genin could keep up with his speed.

"My Kekkei Genkai, the Hyoton. I can create ice at will and manipulate the water around us," he explained, Sakura paling as she realised the mistake it would have been to fight further down the bridge. Haku continued, thin wisps of water forcing the pinkette away from the Uchiha. "I could have killed you easily as soon as you got within range. I will not offer you another chance to surrender. Stand down or die."

Sasuke's response was a punch to the blank mask, easily caught by his opponent, who began making seals with his free hand. "One handed?" Sasuke asked incredulously, before being tackled by Sakura, who received the attack in his place. Razor-sharp ice spikes erupted from the ground, tearing through the back of her leg, mercifully missing her major blood vessels. That said, the attack still left her unable to stand, as Sasuke flew into melee once again.

Haku managed to score a glancing blow, just enough to leave Sasuke open, before moving to suppress the downed kunoichi, who vanished in a burst of smoke. A sandal erupted from the cloud, clattering against the porcelain mask. Naruto stepped out, glaring at the enemy.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. You hurt Sakura-chan. Prepare to die."

SCENE BREAK

"Haku, you'd better have those brats dealt with when I get back." Zabuza muttered, moving swiftly back across the bridge, before ducking to the side as a kunai flew past his ear. Turning to face the jounin who just would _not _give up, his shoulders sagging. "What in the actual fuck." He didn't even have the heart to make it a question.

Iruka stood atop a floating disc of water, left hand in a half-ram as he pulled out another kunai. "I had wondered if this was possible," he gasped, releasing the Mizuryu and dropping to the bridge. "But I think for now, I'd better focus on you." he said, now completely serious. "You will not harm my students. If I have to kill you to protect them, then I will find a way to do it." he swore, now dual-wielding his blades. Zabuza smirked, raising his blade.

"I have to say, you've got balls. Taking me on now, when you're starting to run low on chakra? Tell me your name. You, I think I'll remember." he offered, dashing forwards to cross blades. Iruka leant forwards, smashing his hitae-ate against the other man's face, before lashing out with a wide swipe.

"My name is Umino Iruka. I suppose you're still not inclined to discuss this trying to kill us and our client thing?" he offered politely, sighing even as he jumped backwards to avoid blasts of water. _'Damn. I'm running on soldier pills at this point. Still, those kids should be able to deal with his accomplice, even if he's probably as strong as I am. I just have to keep him busy for a little while longer."_

Zabuza, meanwhile, was now even more determined to defeat his opponent. _'I fucking knew it! I knew Uzushio had to leave some survivors! Still, at least I'm not dealing with an Uzumaki...'_

SCENE BREAK

Sakura flinched as she pulled herself back to a standing position, leaning against a stack of lumber. While she did appreciate the rescue, being forcibly Kawarimi'd without warning was not a pleasant experience. She could clearly see Naruto flinging himself at his opponent, calling up some clones to catch him off-guard. Sakura reached into her emergency pack, eager to bandage her leg properly. Between Sasuke-kun and a fresh Naruto, the match wouldn't last too much longer.

Haku, meanwhile, was starting to feel the pressure of fighting for so long. Even if neither of them could stand up to him one-on-one, the two genin had been just plain difficult to fight together, before their third teammate had turned up. _'No other choice... Kami, I hope I can take them both out with this...'_

"Makyo Hyosho," he intoned, calling up ice mirrors to surround the three of them, though only the exhausted Sasuke was trapped, as Naruto barrel-rolled through a gap underneath one. "If you do not wish for me to kill your teammate, I would surrender. Your kawarimi, advanced though it may be, cannot pierce this technique," he continued, addressing the blond. He melded into the ice as Sasuke lunged, Naruto hesitating as he weighed his options.  


"What the hell are you doing, Uzumaki? If you don't have a way through this, go help Iruka-sensei while I hold him off!" Sasuke barked, before a barrage of needles erupted from several mirrors, a few managing to hit their target despite his best efforts. "Move it!" he roared, gritting his teeth against the pain as he ripped out one of the senbon, movements slow and jerky.

"But-" "No buts, baka! Get going!" Naruto nodded, disappearing and being replaced by a piece of rubble as Haku rematerialised in front of the Uchiha, now clutching a kunai he'd retrieved at some point.

"For whatever it's worth, I am sorry for this," he whispered, ice forming around the knife, extending it to the length of a sword. "But Zabuza-sama has goals in mind, and I have sworn to eliminate any threats to his dreams." With that, he lunged, Sasuke instinctively flinching, eyes closed.

A dripping noise and a strangled gasp caught his attention, his eyes snapping open. A grinning Naruto stood in front of him, a frozen blade erupting from his chest. "Heh... maybe... I should've... thought this through," he coughed, collapsing to his knees as Haku's technique dropped, seemingly no longer seeing either boy as a threat.

Naruto's arms dangled uselessly as he continued. "L-listen, Sasuke... if this is it... y-you were like my brother... Promise me. P-promise you'll keep going... for both of us... don't let... don't let yourself get killed, too..." he panted, blood dripping freely now. "Thank you... and thank Rei-chan, and Daiki... and all the kids... you guys... thank you for showing me... what a family... was..." he finished, eyes closed, as he finally collapsed in front of his best friend.

Sasuke was staring, eyes wide, unable to think. _'N-Naruto... No! Nonono, this can't be happening! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING AGAIN! I CAN'T LOSE ANYONE ELSE!' _he screamed internally, feeling his heart pounding in his chest as he gazed up at Haku.

"You. You _killed _my BEST FRIEND!" he snarled, feeling a burning build up in the back of his eyes as he ripped out the last few senbon, tearing his skin open in the process. "Now, _you_ die." he swore, the Sharingan blurring, taking on the shape of a six-pointed flower.

"Amaterasu."

...

Ain't I evil?

Anyway, you guys know the drill. Seeya!


	19. Plans Fall Apart

Guess who's back! ...It's me, just in case anyone got confused about that. Ah, who am I kidding, you guys are too smart for that!

Stuff:

princessbinas: Iruka's only just started with the crazy. (grins) I'm taking all bets for Kakashi V Iruka, guys! Taking all bets!

...

Abraca-story! No? OK.

...

"Amaterasu." Sasuke muttered darkly, black flames bursting from his left eye towards Haku, every fibre of Sasuke's being determined to kill the Kiri native. Haku leapt back as the Uchiha glared after him, the flames following his gaze to chase the enemy. "This is what you deserve! You and _anyone else _who wants to hurt my family!" he yelled, leaping after the fake hunter-nin despite the stabbing pains in his legs.

Sakura, eyes watering, stumbled over to Naruto as Sasuke hunted down his target, clutching her medical pack for comfort. A hacking cough drew her attention as Naruto's body spasmed painfully. _'N-naruto's still alive? How?' _she thought desperately, trying to remember what to do. _'Okay, remove the clothing to get a better look at the wound. Don't remove the-_ _damn,' _she thought, seeing that the kunai had fallen beside the boy. _'A bulky dressing, fasten it in place- wait.' _Wisps of red-coloured chakra were visible inside the wound, which was slowly closing, even as she watched. Staring dumbly, Sakura could only bring herself to wonder one thing, whispering it under her breath._  
_

"What the hell is happening to you, Naruto?"

SCENE BREAK

Naruto coughed, waking up in what looked to be a sewer, filled with what he hoped was just red water. Looking around, he sighed, grumbling to himself.

"...save his life at _least _twice, and this is the afterlife I get. Shit, do I have to get world peace or something to go to heaven? That's kinda unreasonable... Where the fuck am I anyway?"

**"Well, well. So my jailor has finally decided to grace me with his presence." **came a blood-curdling voice from behind him. Naruto turned to see a set of massive iron bars, a piece of paper reading 'seal' placed where two of them met. As he looked on, a blood-red eye opened, as the torches flared to life. The eye's owner, an enormous fox with nine tails thrashing behind it, grinned sadistically. **"Have you come to release me, you little whelp?"**

"...s-so y-you're the Kyuubi..." Naruto stuttered, unsure whether he should be running, screaming in terror or passing out. He elected to go with option four. "I thought you'd be bigger. Weren't you meant to be the size of the village or something?" When in doubt, annoy.

If Naruto hadn't been so terrified, the sight of one of the most powerful beings in the entire world blinking in shock would have been hilarious. As it was, he simply braced himself. **"IMPUDENT, PITIFUL HUMAN SCUM! YOU DARE MOCK THE KYUUBI NO KITSUNE?" **the monster bellowed, slamming against the bars of its prison. The shockwaves, even from several yards away, sent Naruto sprawling, clutching at the water that somehow acted as a foothold for him.

"I'm not mocking you! I swear! I just thought you were bigger!" he called, somehow making himself heard over the crashing and roaring. After what seemed like hours, it stopped, the fox turning its attention back to him.

**"If we weren't working with a time limit, I would make you pay for that, whelp. As it stands, your frail human form lies dying. My life is bound to yours, so it is in my best interests to keep you alive until this damnable seal breaks. However, I will need your _agreement _to repair that lump of flesh you operate in. Do you understand, brat?" **the beast hissed, snapping its jaws. Naruto picked himself up, noting that there appeared to be a hole in his torso.

_'That's not right...' _he thought, concerned. "So, what do we need to do?" he asked, before some of the liquid floated up to hover level with him, pulsating unnaturally. Naruto looked past it at the narrowed eyes of the beast.

**"Accept this power. Use it to crush your enemies. Do not disappoint me, weak as you are." **instructed the beast as Naruto raised a hesitant hand. Even from here, he could feel the foul chakra. But it had to be better than bleeding out, right?

"For what it's worth, I still wouldn't trust you as far as I can throw you," he stated, taking the plunge and pressing his hand against the sphere, which immediately starting burning at his skin. "And I can't forgive what you did to the village, to Jiji's wife, Iruka-sensei's parents..." he forced himself to continue, teeth gritted against the pain. "But I do have to appreciate you saving my life. So... thanks." he finished, fading from the mindscape.

_**'Foolish brat. Thinking I want your thanks. My freedom will be all the thanks I need, starting with this...'**_

SCENE BREAK

Sakura pressed a bandage to the wound on Naruto's chest, clearing away at the blood as his wounds closed. _'I've never seen anything like this, not even in our textbooks. A bloodline, maybe? Maybe that's why the adults hate him... if his clan did something bad enough to get wiped from the records, then Naruto would be drawing all of their leftover anger-' _A burst of chakra from what was left of the wound cut off her thoughts, driving away any ideas other than GET AWAY!

As she backed up, wincing at the pain in her leg, a shroud of chakra formed around Naruto, as his features turned feral. She openly gaped as he shook his head, spitting blood to one side as he stood up.

**"Sakura. Which way did they go?" **he half-asked, half-snarled, eyes turning into red slits. Sakura pointed after the fighters, knees shaking. As he took off at speeds she'd never seen him reach before, she collapsed, feeling the sheer _wrongness _of the chakra fade slightly. Staring after him, she wondered what in the actual _fuck _was happening. _'Was that a tail?'_

SCENE BREAK

Iruka and Zabuza flinched simultaneously, feeling the unnatural energy even from a distance. While Iruka recognised it for what it truly was, Zabuza was remembering his attempts at fighting the Yondaime Mizukage. Iruka swore and ran off at full speed, before a thrown Kubikirihocho blocked his passage. "Where the hell do you think you're going? That's a jinchuuriki! A Kami-damned bijuu!" Zabuza hissed, landing in front of him.

"I have to protect my students, even from themselves. Now, get out of my way before I _make _you." Iruka said, suspiciously calm. Zabuza's eyes widened as he realised what that meant.

"Your student- a jin... what?" he babbled. Konoha was trusting their jinchuuriki, which had to be the container of the damned Kyuubi, to this guy? Not someone like one of the Sannin? Zabuza was suddenly glad he hadn't killed the man, seeing as having no way to restrain the bijuu container would be... problematic. "So, you can deal with this?"

Iruka nodded grimly, the two of them moving together. "I just need to get to him. I propose we finish off our battle once the immediate threat is dealt with. Agreed?" he offered tersely, knowing that the other man would be more concerned with being caught fighting a bijuu than a no-name jounin. _'Naruto... I hope you're okay..."_

SCENE BREAK

Sasuke gasped as the flames formed a circle around Haku. He'd never felt so drained, emotionally and physically, in his life. A red trail ran down his face as his left eye bled. "Now, you die." he panted, before his knees buckled. He could feel himself falling but his arms were unresponsive. _'What the hell? Shit... used up too much chakra!"_

"A valiant effort, Uchiha-san, but you've used up the last of your chakra with that technique. I am sorry for what happened to your friend. Naruto-san was a good person-" "You don't get to say that. You do not get to talk about Naruto, you bastard!" Sasuke snapped, barely able to stay conscious, as he felt his muscles seize up without the energy to move them.

"I am truly sorry that it came to this-" Haku began, before a crimson blur sent him tumbling, a vengeful blond coated in red chakra taking his place. Naruto smirked evilly as he stared at the cracked mask.

**"If you try to kill me, you better be ready to finish the job, bastard,"** he growled, before turning and staring down at Sasuke. **"I thought you'd know by now not to underestimate me, Sasuke. Did you really think something like that could kill me?"**

Sasuke managed a smirk before his eyes rolled back and he fell unconscious. Haku flinched as he felt Naruto's killing intent blanket the area, a red tail flicking impatiently behind him. _'I can't believe this is happening twice in the space of five minutes... this is even worse than Zabuza-sama fighting the Mizukage, at least then we had support and knew what we were facing. This entire mission has been one mess after another.'_

Even with his chakra near-empty, Haku stood ready, determined to fight in defence of his master's wishes. Naruto, meanwhile, was revelling in how light and strong he felt, how easy it was to move and track and fight. **"I hope you're ready, because I am just itching to make you pay for what you've done!" **the jinchuuriki snarled, lunging ahead with newfound vigour.

SCENE BREAK

Ino snapped awake, a pale-looking Shikamaru standing over her as Chouji stood awkwardly in the background. "Are you okay, Ino?" the Nara asked, openly worried. "You said you were going to check if we were being followed and you just... you collapsed. You could have died, Ino." he murmured grimly, helping her to her feet.

Ino wiped a hand under her nose, grimacing as it came away bloody. "It's fine, but there's something going on at the bridge. It- it was h-horrible," she shuddered, remembering what had happened just before she lost consciousness. "I think they might be in danger. Between that chakra and those nuke-nin..."

Shikamaru nodded as Chouji interjected. "Not to mention all of Gatou's goons turning out here to try and hunt us down. I think we should head straight there. If all else fails, we can use Gatou as a hostage..." he trailed off, none of them entirely comfortable with that eventuality.

Shikamaru muttered under his breath as they moved on again. "I guess with Asuma-sensei out of commission, that's the best course of action we have, even if I'd _really _rather not go towards that fight. You sure you're okay, Ino?" he asked quietly. Ino nodded, ignoring the surge of dizziness as she did so.

"Good," the pineapple-haired genin continued, a little more relieved. "We're all in this together, and I promise, nobody else is going to get hurt as bad as sensei was." he grunted, the determination in his voice surprising both his teammates. Seemed as though being 'average' wasn't going to cut it anymore as far as Shikamaru was concerned. The two shared a look as they moved in closer behind their unofficial leader. Team Ten stood together, no matter what.

SCENE BREAK

Naruto cackled harshly as his tail pinned the enemy to the ground, smashing the breath out of him. **"Not so fun when you're the one losing, is it? When I'm done with you, they'll know not to mess with me!" **he roared, even as a small part of him wondered if he was going too far.

No, no he wasn't. This guy had attacked Sakura-chan and Sasuke, he tried to kill Tazuna-san. Anyone who wanted to work for someone like Gatou deserved to get the shit kicked out of them! He **had to pay for what he did!**

Haku hissed in pain, the red cloak burning his skin where it touched. He might have failed his orders to deal with the genin, he mused, but Zabuza-sama had no doubt already managed to escape. The sensation was so much like facing Yagura that even Haku had panicked. That debacle had ended with dozens of their support dying and Zabuza-sama being forced out of Kiri, courtesy of Hoshigaki Kisame's informing the Mizukage of their plans. At least, he thought, oddly calm as his mask finally shattered completely, his master would still have the chance to achieve his goals.

He closed his eyes as a fist wreathed in red approached, not desiring to see his death coming. However, the blow landed a few inches to the side as he blinked and stared into Naruto's surprised face, still looking demonic.

"H-Haku?" he whispered, the dark undertones to his voice fading. "Wh-what are you... why? I thought you hated Gatou... that you wanted to-to change things," he continued, before snarling again. **"Was that all a lie to make me trust you? Answer me!"**

Haku coughed harshly before speaking. "I did not lie to you, Naruto-san. Zabuza-sama is the precious person I told you about. I was lost, alone, and he rescued me. The Mizukage had ordered all shinobi and civilians with bloodlines killed. Not only did Zabuza-sama save me from the purges, he also gave me my purpose," he whispered, somewhat relieved to be able to tell someone his true motives.

"Your purpose?" Naruto questioned, the ethereal grip relaxing very slightly. Haku simply inclined his head in agreement.

"My purpose is to act as a tool, a weapon for Zabuza-sama to use in achieving his dreams. If I can help him to reach his goals, I will be able to die satisfied." he explained further, caught off-guard by Naruto's expression turning stormy.

"You think you can justify what you've both done with some bullshit excuse like that. Working for Gatou- what part of that seemed like a good idea? Was it the money? Was it that good that a supposedly 'honourable' guy like Zabuza would just sell out and start fucking over an entire country?" "Zabuza-sama would never-"

"Not. Finished." Naruto bit tersely. "And on top of that, he doesn't even let you have dreams of your own? What do you get out of this?" he asked accusingly, red eyes staring at Haku. The boy stammered a bit before slumping in defeat.

"...have you ever been so alone that when someone finds you, you would do anything, _anything_, just to ensure they continue to acknowledge you? That you would do whatever it takes to make sure you don't get left alone again?" he asked eventually, eyes watering slightly.

A thrown sword cut through the chakra limb before Naruto could answer as the two jounin landed next to their respective charges, Zabuza gazing threateningly at Naruto. "Don't you think you can try to kill my subordinate and get away with it, brat!" he threatened, Iruka holding out a hand to prevent a fight.

"Drop your cloak, Naruto, and go double-check on Sasuke and Sakura, before Team Ten make it back here. They're on their way now." he instructed, unflinching in the face of the demonic chakra. Naruto bristled at the order, before exhaling deeply, his features returning to normal. He called up two pairs of clones who immediately ran off, Naruto himself stepping up beside his sensei.

"Even if you're awesome, Iruka-sensei, I'm not gonna leave you to fight by yourself. You can't order me to leave my teammates behind." he swore, both of them weighing themselves against the ex-Kiri swordsman. The stand-off was broken by a trio of genin bursting into view, one of them carrying a squirming bundle on his back.

"Oh, they were kidnapping someone," Naruto said, sounding suspiciously relieved. "That actually makes sense." he laughed, ignoring the incredulous looks he got from both of the jounin present. "...What? I knew they were doing _something _illegal, just didn't know what."

Iruka facepalmed as the genin approached, yelling over one another as they tried to explain what had happened, all three slienced by a quick glare from Iruka and Zabuza.

"Why in the hell are you brats holding Gatou hostage?" the latter exclaimed, pointing accusingly as he surreptitiously offered Haku a hand up. "Wait... are you using him to blackmail me? Because that is both adorable and incredibly aggravating."

"He's betraying you!" Ino shrieked, shocking the Kiri-nin as she yanked the corrupt businessman around to face his employee. "He's got an army, hundreds of mercenaries, and he ordered them to kill you so he wouldn't have to pay you!" she continued, as dozens of the aforementioned mercenaries came into view.

"Bastard... Umino, you stay here. I've got no reason to go after you or the old man anymore," Zabuza growled, striding forwards as Haku stood shakily. "These guys, on the other hand..." he growled, grabbing his sword tightly, even as another copy of the blond- _the fucking Kyuubi container!-_ popped into existence next to him.

"Hang on a second, you're not the only one who's got a bone to pick with these guys. I'm gonna show them you can't treat people like dirt and get away with it!" he declared, the original looking put out that a clone had stolen his moment. Zabuza saw in Naruto's eyes the same kind of fire he knew his own eyes had once held, the fire that said _'I am going to change the world, and to hell with anyone who gets in my way.'_

For all that, though, he had a kind of innocence about him that Zabuza hadn't seen in years, since before he entered the academy. Shaking his head, he let the blond take point, directing the other genin as his sensei just looked on, bemused. He noted that Haku seemed confused, leaning on another clone for support.

"Umino-san?" he asked, hoping for some kind of explanation. The younger man just shrugged helplessly as the jinchuuriki brought the number of clones standing in line to five. Zabuza readied himself as the blond brat spoke again.

"Ready!" he called, the enemy showing no signs of slowing down. "Aim! he continued, the five of them making seals; Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit, Snake. "Fire! Fuuton: DaiToppa!" he cried, all five releasing a barrage of compressed wind that sent the soldiers flying through the air, many of them landing painfully.

"You sons of bitches want to hurt anyone else, you gotta get past me!" he smirked. One of his opponents managed to scramble to his feet, pointing his sword at the shinobi.

"Doesn't matter what tricks you've got up your sleeves, we still outnumber you a hundred to one!" Naruto burst out laughing in response. summoning up enough chakra that even the barely-trained goons working for Gatou could feel it.

"No-one outnumbers Uzumaki Fucking Naruto!" he cried, summoning up enough clones to swamp the area, at least ten for every soldier. The head Naruto panted, turning to the army gaping in shock.

"Run."

And they did, even as the clones disappeared in a burst of smoke, leaving an exhausted genin laughing at the good of it. Zabuza stood frozen, staring at the child who'd just used more chakra than most Kage could and was left only winded.

"Haku, we fucked it up. We'd best find somewhere new to hole up until we can raise the funds we need." he sighed, hoping to just get away from the _Uzumaki_ before something worse happened to him.

"Why don't you guys come to Konoha?" Something worse like that. Zabuza stared, incredulous, at the blond, noting that everyone else shared his confusion. "The hell you say, brat?"

"Yeah, I mean, you could have killed us, or tried to at least, after you found out what this sack of crap was planning," Naruto pressed on, nudging a fainted Gatou with his foot. "But you didn't, even though we coulda reported you to Kiri or whatever. Plus, it's not like it's never happened before. The entire Aburame defected to Konoha for political reasons back in the First World War, just like you leaving Kiri." he concluded, glancing around at the stunned crowd. "What? So I read up on some history."

Zabuza looked to Iruka, whose hands were hovering over his kunai pouch. A voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like his sensei piped up. _'Never argue with an Uzumaki. Just smile, nod and pray they move on quickly. We're still not sure what happened to the rest of unit 12.'_

For the second time in his life, Zabuza found himself surrendering to someone he had no hope of beating. But if anyone asked, it was the Umino and the Sarutobi who talked him into it. No way was he letting it be known he surrendered to a midget.

...

Done.

Blegh. I remember why I didn't look forward to the Wave mission. This was _hard_, you guys. It still feels like I did it wrng, but I figure you'll let me know, right?

Poll's still open for anyone who's interested. See you next time on: Whatever this is!


	20. Homecoming

We're cutting back to the chibis! Honestly, I was planning on showing them sometime in the last few chapters, but the timing felt wrong. That's neither here nor there, though.

stuff:

quarklord: No-one wants to know what happened to unit twelve. Not even unit twelve. The Uzumaki, however, are the boogeymen of Kiri. Kumo and Iwa, considering their entire village was enough of a threat that it had to be wiped off the map completely. I can't wait for Naruto to learn about that. (grins)

Morwyn K (because I forgot last chapter and I'm really sorry): That's only the icing on the cake, after Naruto's being properly trained to use his ridiculous chakra and Sakura being competent that much earlier. Iruka's reputation as a teacher is gonna just skyrocket once the chuunin exams come around. (continues grinning)

...

Go!

...

Rei groaned as she closed the history textbook the size of her head, looking askance at Daiki practicing his sword forms outside. She could have been learning new jutsu or working on her taijutsu, but _no._ Neko-san and Hyou-san were insistent that she prepare for the final exams coming up in two months. Two damn months of this! the only consolation was that everyone else was expected to do the same, after Sasuke-nii did it before his.

Megumi bounded in, clutching the stuffed black cat Naruto had gotten her. "Rei-nee-chan? When're Sasu-nii an' Naru-nii coming back?" she asked, face the picture of innocence. Rei's eyes narrowed.

"What did you do, Megumi-chan?" she demanded, not fooled in the least.

"N-Nothing... It's just... Mari and Kenta went off to play with Konomaru, and they said they were making a surprise for Naru-nii an' Sasu-nii." The five-year-old explained, causing Rei to pale. Sarutobi Konohamaru, the Hokage's grandson, who was determined to prove himself as good of a prankster as Naruto-kun, had somehow talked two of her cousins into going along with his latest plot?

This would not end well.

"Megumi-chan, go tell Neko-san that me and Daiki are going to sort out some clan business. While you're at it, tell him to get the first aid kit for Mari and Kenta." she decided, tying back her hair and heading for the door.

"Are they hurt?" enquired the younger girl, all wide eyes and worried expression. Rei grabbed Daiki by the collar as she called back.

"They will be!"

SCENE BREAK

"This is gonna be easy, man!" chirped the newest recruit to Uchiha Duty. "Keeping an eye on a bunch of brats-" SPAK! Neko slapped the back of his head in admonishment.

"You don't talk about them like that. They're good kids, and just as important, they're our clients. Just put your mask on, Uma." he sighed. With Inu 'retired' and most of the other guards being sent on missions, he'd been tasked to tort- er, train, some new candidates for the ongoing protection duty.

Megumi bounded up to them, followed by Anzu and Takuya, who began clamouring for Neko to listen, with none of them actually getting their message out. Neko mask-palmed, holding up his other hand to quiet them.

Megumi was the only one who didn't get the message. "Neko-san, Rei-nee and Daiki are gonna go find Konomaru an' Mari and' Kenta, and she said she's gonna need somebody to help after she makes them hurt." she murmured, hiding behind Anzu, who glared indignantly at Uma.

"Well, Uma-san, looks like we've got your first task as part of your protection. Go collect our wayward chibis while I keep an eye on these ones," Neko said brightly, scooping up Megumi as she hid behind her stuffed toy. "Just make sure you show them your paperwork first!" he called, even as Uma disappeared in a shunshin. Neko sighed in exasperation.

"He's doomed, isn't he, Neko-san?" "That he is, Takuya-kun. Now, let's get back inside before the fireworks begin."

SCENE BREAK

Rei leapt across the rooftops, gesturing to her cousin to follow, even as he checked his bokken. He'd insisted on bringing the wooden swords after she'd vetoed bringing live blades with him. "Just jump, for Log's sake! They're not going to fall!"

"You don't know that," he snarked, jumping anyway. "I still don't know why you brought me. Can't you just deal with them yourself? Come on, Hayate-sensei's gonna test me soon to see whether I'm good enough to be his apprentice after I graduate. I need to get these forms down _perfectly_." he stressed, making Rei roll her eyes. If he cared about the rest of his skills as much as he did about swords, Daiki'd be another prodigy like... _Him_. She grimaced, trying not to think about it.

"Nothing like some practical experience, Daiki-chan," she taunted, the two of them heading for the Sarutobi estate. "If they make a break for it, consider it practice." she continued airily, Daiki yelping as he nearly missed his footing. The two of them dropped back to street level, still running.

"Besides, it'll be fun-Oof!" Rei concluded, colliding with someone running full tilt in the opposite direction. Daiki blanched as he saw who they'd literally run into. "Rei? That's Hinata-nee's little sister, right?" Rei blinked dumbly as a Hyuuga chuunin ran around the corner after Hanabi.

"Hanabi-sama, are you okay?" he asked, bending down next to her. The hand he offered was swatted away as Hanabi stood and looked down at Rei.

"How dare you get in my way!" she declared, turning her nose up as she addressed Rei. "I am here on official Hyuuga clan business, not to be accosted by commoners like yourself!" Rei's eye twitched violently.

"We both crashed into one another, brat! Don't go putting all the blame on me!" she barked. Daiki sidled over to the horrified branch Hyuuga as the girls began a screaming match.

"So, you have one too? An uptight heiress with too much time on her hands, I mean." he began, before a stone hit him in the face. Rei hadn't even paused in her arguments. Daiki rubbed his now bruised nose, gesturing to the older man to move a little further away. "I'm sure they'll calm down soo... eventually," he smiled, offering a hand. "Uchiha Daiki."

The man blinked, hesitantly shaking. "Hyuuga Futoshi. I-I'm sorry about Hanabi-sama. She came here looking for the Honourable Grandson after something happened at the academy... Hiashi-sama was considering sending her from this year, but not anymore," he sighed, watching the 'my clan is better than your clan' competitors. "Hanabi-sama blames the Honourable-"

"He prefers Konohamaru, just so you know," Daiki interrupted. "Actually, could you check and see if he's here? We need to find him before Rei has a fit-" THWACK. "Damnit! Stop with the fucking rocks already!" "Then stop being wrong!"

Futoshi blinked, shaking his head. "W-we already checked. The Hon- er, Konohamaru-san is nowhere near here." he continued, as the two girls activated their Dojutsu, Rei having a single tomoe in her left eye and two in the right. Hanabi had bulging veins next to her eyes. Daiki facepalmed, muttering under his breath.

"You grab your one and I'll grab mine. Heh, phrasing." he chuckled. Futoshi just stared blankly. "Oh, come on, I'm eleven! Just be ready to run with Hanabi-san." he instructed, dashing ahead and snatching the ribbon from Rei's hair.

"What the- DAIKI! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" she snarled, running after her cousin and leaving Hanabi mid-sentence. The Hyuuga girl pouted as she turned back to Futoshi.

"I do not care for that girl, Futoshi-san."

SCENE BREAK

Uma glanced around at the streets below. The brats had only left a few minutes before him, how far could they have gotten? An Uchiha fan on the street below caught his eye and he quickly used the Shunshin to land in front of his target, picking up the girl by her collar. "Uchiha-chan, I'm afraid you're going to need to come with m-!" his eyes bulged behind the mask as a young boy strode forwards and punched him in the crotch. Hard. (a/n: pun not intended.)  


"Don't you grab my sister, you dumb assface dumbass!" Uchiha Zanji ranted, kicking the man's shins and smacking him over the head with a tree branch he'd found... in the middle of a street.

"Z-Zanji, h-he's an ANBU. P-please stop b-before we get in t-trouble." Uchiha Nene whispered, doing a very convincing impression of a certain Hyuuga heiress. Her twin paused, his impromptu bludgeon held overhead.

"_But Nene..._" he whined, as Uma grieved for his future children. "He's a dick..."

"H-he must have a m-message for us, Zanji," she pressed on. "M-maybe Rei-nee sent him, o-or one of the other ANBU."

"_But Nene..._" he continued, before sighing and moving in uncomfortably close to Uma. "If you scare my sister like that again, I'll do the things Sasuke-nii told all of us never to do to another Konoha-nin." he threatened, Uma blinking back tears.

_"I'm so-_ I am sorry, Uchiha-san. I was sent to retrieve your cousins who left the compound unescorted," he managed to say, proud of the fact he hadn't squeaked in pain. Much. "If neither of you have seen any of them..." he prompted, receiving a pair of simultaneous negative answers and nodding in acknowledgement. "In that case, I will take my leave." he said, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

The twins dusted themselves off, before Zanji swore profusely, Nene managing to both pale and redden upon hearing it. "What is it, Zanji? What's wrong?"

"We just confirmed for some random guy who _claimed _to be an ANBU that one or more of our cousins are probably wandering around alone!" he barked, drawing a lot of attention from random passers-by before grabbing his sister by the arm and ragging her bodily towards the compound. "We've got to tell the real ANBU!"

SCENE BREAK

Konohamaru grinned widely at his co-conspirators, whose reactions were varied. Moegi and Udon were smiling and praising their leader, Mari was grinning evilly and Kenta... was wondering how he got roped into this. Oh, right, because they needed someone vaguely responsible with them because _man_, they were being dumb.

"It's just what he'd want, but how do we do it without getting caught?" Mari asked, voice unnervingly sweet. Konohamaru smirked in response.

"I've got it set up so that it'll dry to a different colour. Jiji thought I was studying for chemistry," he snickered at the thoughts of outsmarting the Hokage. "I'm gonna prove to Naruto-nii that I'm an even better prankster than him!"

"Pft. Like that means anything to a real shinobi," Kenta scoffed, flopping onto the grass. "You should use your time to practice some actual skills instead of dicking around like this." he mocked before Mari bopped him on the head.

"Kenta, be nice! Konohamaru-kun is our friend!" she admonished, hands on her hips.

"He's your friend, I'm just here to make sure you don't get yourselves killed in your shenanigans." Kenta complained, as Konohamaru tried to square off against the taller boy. Due to the latter being horizontal, he was less than successful.

"Naruto-nii says that pranking is the best way to learn stealth, ambush tactics and escape techniques." he said accusingly, poking Kenta in the chest. The Uchiha (technically) slapped the hand away lazily.

"Ten ryo says you have no idea what that's supposed to mean," he snarked, before two blurs erupted from the trees, colliding with Konohamaru and landing painfully on top of him. "Okay, I'll admit it. Today is a pretty good day." Kenta chuckled, Mari rushing over to the groaning forms of Rei and Daiki.

"What's wrong, Rei-nee?" Mari asked, as Daiki tried to untangle his legs from the Sarutobi's. "Are Sasuke-nii and Naruto-nii home already? We heard they were gonna be here today, so we-"

"Mari, did you ask to leave the compound? Did you wait for me or Daiki or one of the ANBU? You know the rules!" Rei scolded, tying her hair back again. "Sasuke warned all of us about being more careful! What were you thinking!"

"Oh, good, you're all together," came a new, condescending voice. "That'll make things easier. Now, you brats are coming with me. Neko's been worried about you." Uma said softly, this time ensuring he was out of melee range.

As Mari and Kenta sighed and moved to follow Uma back to the compound, they found their path blocked by a drawn sword, courtesy of Daiki. "Hang on. Where's your mission statement? We're not going to follow you anywhere without some kind of proof." he said sternly, placing his other hand on the hilt of his second blade, as Rei moved into the starting position for the Bojuken.

"For Kami's sake. Just come on, you damned brats!" Uma growled, taking a step forwards, before a pair of crossed blades lashed out, followed by a fireball from Rei. He easily sidestepped the burst of flames, cracking his knuckles as he observed the kids taking their combat positions. "Okay then, time to teach you a lesson." he decided, rushing ahead and trying to strike at pressure points.

Daiki ran ahead, slashing widely to cover for the younger students. "Nitoryu:Kenkousen!" he cried, unleashing twin chakra slashes towards Uma's position. Uma drew his tanto and parried the strikes, throwing a kick that Rei barely blocked, catching Kenta with a palm strike.

"Seriously?" Uma laughed even as Konohamaru moved in front of him. "Like, that's all? Sheesh, I was getting worried. _Clearly_, tales of your escapades have been greatly exaggerated." he mocked, easily deflecting the kunai aimed at him.

"You won't hurt my friends!" Konohamaru declared, making a ram seal and holding it as he readied his chakra. "Have a taste of the ultimate Kage Killer technique! Oiroke no Jutsu!" he yelled, before vanishing in a puff of smoke and transforming into a... less than dressed young woman.

There was silence for a moment before Uma made a strange gurgling noise and began clawing at his mask, even as Konohamaru dropped his technique. "What's going on?" the Sarutobi asked, bewildered, as Kenta and Mari wrapped their opponent's legs in ninja wire, Rei securing the other end to a rock jutting out nearby.

Daiki charged forwards and kicked as hard as possible, sending the man careening over the edge of the rock face nearby, where he was left dangling in midair. "ANBU masks are watertight. I'm gonna guess that his nosebleed filled it up pretty quick- oh, that's disturbing," he commented as the blood began dripping through the eyeholes of the mask, Uma twitching uncomfortably. "Now, we'd best do whatever it is you came here to do and head home before Neko-san loses it."

"Wait, what? No, we head home now!" Rei scolded, as Moegi and Udon stood in awe of their leader, who lapped it up. "Daiki, what in Log's name are you playing at?" The younger boy shrugged before answering.

"C'mon, Rei-nee, you know as well as I do that we'll never hear the end of it if they don't get finished. Besides," he grinned. "You did say we'd have fun." Rei, faced with six expectant faces, sighed in resignation.

"Alright, alright, but don't think you're off the hook for this!" she warned, turning to Konohamaru. "What exactly _are_ you planning, anyway?"

SCENE BREAK

Teams Ten and Seven approached the gates, Haku and Zabuza following closely as the group moved in awkward silence. Most of them.

"I have to say, Sasu-chan, I'm really disappointed in you. I mean, I had to go and avenge my own death." "You didn't actually die, baka. It didn't count. And I warned you about the fucking pet names!"

Ino moved closer to Sakura, the two of them having reconciled after the battle. "So have they admitted it yet?"

"NO!" Sasuke roared suddenly. "How many Log-damned times do I have to say it? I Am Not Gay!" Shikamaru snorted as Naruto laughed heartily. Sasuke whirled around, eyes red in his anger. "What's so funny? You bastards want proof? I'll give you proof!" he snarled, groping Ino and Sakura, who immediately turned scarlet, before grabbing Haku and pulling the ice-user into a kiss.

Naruto collapsed in fits of giggles as the rest of the group stared in blank shock. Zabuza, especially, was looking vaguely nauseous. Looking around at the group, Sasuke's eye twitched and he groaned. "Haku... you're not a girl, are you?" he asked in exasperation, being answered with a shake of the Kiri native's head. "Okay, I'm going to have to wash out my mouth and possibly vomit profusely. No offence." he offered, as they finally arrived at the gates, which were suspiciously empty.

"None taken," Haku muttered as they stopped. "Aren't there meant to be guards here?" he asked, as Iruka collected some water vapour in his hand, tossing the orb into one of the guard posts beside the gate. He was rewarded with the sounds of sputtering as a chuunin with a bandage across his face stood up quickly, wiping his eyes.

"Hey, Kotetsu. Teams Seven and Ten returning from our missions. Where's Izumo?" Iruka asked conversationally, as though he hadn't woken the man. Kotetsu glared at the jounin before he burst into chuckles.

"Okay, I probably deserved that, man. Izumo's gone to- well, you'll see when you get inside." he smirked, waving them through. _'Wait, was that Momochi Zabuza? No, no, probably that Uzumaki kid screwing around with transformations again. Iruka, your team is so freaking overpowered...'_

The ten shinobi walked through the gates, their eyes locked on the Hokage monument scrawled with graffiti. The area to the right of the Yondaime's head held the largest message:

**"Welcome home, Sasuke-nii and Naruto-nii!"**

Seeing several ANBU members chase a cackling Konohamaru past them, Naruto grinned at the Kiri-nin. "Welcome to Konoha! You guys are gonna like it here."

Zabuza turned an interesting shade of grey. "I don't suppose we could leave right now?" he asked hopefully, before a pair of Kage bunshin glomped him and Haku.

"Nope!"

...

Done!

Next up: Iruka has a word with Kakashi, and preparations are about to begin for Konoha's chuunin exams. Yay!


	21. Surprises

New chapter! And I broke the 100 review mark! Were I less _manly_, I would squee. As it stands, thanks to everyone who's kept up with this story. I hope you'll enjoy it as we go further into the plot. Cheers, guys!

Trying a new thing for scene breaks. You should be able to see OoOoO instead of SCENE BREAK from now on.

Stuff:

koryu: The homophobia is pretty much limited to Sasuke, and that's really only due to Naruto (and the village) insinuating that he's gay more often than he'd be comfortable with. He's not really biased against gay people, just determined to stop the rumours if he can.

MuffinMan9223: That's one of the best ways to break your teeth so I don't know if... (realises Killer B does exactly that, along with other very silly things) Huh. I don't really have any other argument against it.

LordTicky: I have a very good reason for making Sasuke overpowered so early. Trust me, I'm actually concerned about him being _under_powered for what I have planned. Besides, as it stands, he has maybe one good shot with any of its abilities before he runs out of chakra.

That reminds me, I'm considering giving Sasuke and Itachi their own unique Mangekyou abilities, like Kamui, only... not Kamui. Any suggest- I mean, ideas?

...

Yeah, I got nothing.

...

"So..." the Sandaime said, staring blankly at Teams Ten and Seven as well as Zabuza and Haku. "Your bandit clearance mission turned out to be led by a missing-nin, bumping it up to B-rank," he began, pointing at Iruka. "While Team Ten decided to continue their mission after being attacked by missing-nin, leading to Asuma being knocked into a coma until Team Seven managed to rendezvous with them, at which point, you decided to send clones as message carriers. This, unfortunately, left you without support by the time Zabuza attacked once again, though you held him and his apprentice off long enough that you uncovered Gatou's plans to betray them, taking Gatou captive to try and convince them to hear you out.

"Upon hearing this, Zabuza agreed to aid you in dealing with Gatou's private army. Having dealt with them, you managed to convince him to defect to Konoha, as well as managing to galvanise the natives of Nami no Kuni into dealing with Gatou's thugs for themselves. Have I missed anything?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"Also I might have been a little dead and Sasuke's eyes shoot fire now." Naruto summarised, as his teamates facepalmed. The Hokage simply sighed, giving a wry smile.

"Thank you for that, Naruto. If you'll move down to the mission office on the next floor, they'll organise your pay for this little adventure. Team Ten, you go first, while I get a more... detailed report on what happened on the bridge." Asuma nodded, leading his genin out of the room, Ino looking suspiciously at Naruto.

"Now, Iruka, I believe you mentioned that something happened when you were on the bridge?" he prompted, Iruka freezing up.

"Y-yes, Hokage-sama, but I don't believe the genin need to be here for that. Why don't you three head home while I talk things over with Sandaime-sama? You're still not authorised for some of what we need to discuss." he explained, a little desperate. Sasuke nodded and motioned to Naruto and Sakura to follow as he left the room.

"Was that really necessary, Iruka?" "I'm afraid so... Sakura still doesn't know about _it_. I think she suspects, but until Naruto says something, I can't mention it in front of her." Iruka sighed, as Zabuza cleared his throat.**  
**

"Is this about the Uzumaki being a jinchuuriki?" he asked bluntly, a pair of ANBU materialising and holding their blades to his throat as the Hokage spoke up again.

"How do you know about that?" he asked, a dangerous tone entering his voice. Zabuza gulped despite himself. This was the Sandaime Hokage, the 'God of Shinobi', and it was very clear what could happen if he gave the wrong answer.

"I fought jinchuuriki back in Kiri, the Sanbi and the Rokubi. It's slightly different with the blond, but I know how bijuu chakra feels. I'm not the only one. Haku actually fought the brat when he was using it, so he knows too." Zabuza explained calmly.

"I trust you have not said anything. Naruto's status as jinchuuriki is regarded as an S-class secret here in Konoha. It is forbidden to tell the new generation of his burden. Do not break this law, or I will execute you myself." the Sandaime said darkly. It wasn't a threat, Zabuza realised, merely a statement of fact.

"Why would I do that? It's none of my business what he contains," he replied, trying to be flippant about it, even as the Umino gave him a strange, calculating look. "Besides, it was his idea for us to come here. Actually, if the Demon Brothers haven't gotten themselves killed yet, any chance of them getting the same deal as us?"

"You haven't gotten any deal yet," the old man stated bluntly, before chuckling at their expressions. "We still need to verify that you're not planning against us. If you are honest in wanting to join Konoha, you should be... fine," he informed them, before addressing the ANBU. "Take them both to Ibiki. Tell him to be thorough, but not excessive." The masked shinobi nodded, directing the newcomers outside, the doors slamming shut.

"Just a moment, Hokage-sama," Iruka murmured, concern etched into his features. "Naruto drew on quite a bit of the Bijuu's chakra. He kept it under control but... there was a moment where I thought he was going to attack me for breaking up his fight. It's not that I don't have faith in him, but..."

"You are concerned that the seal may be leaking more chakra than was originally intended. I have had similar concerns, but Jiraiya will be coming to the village sometime around the exams to check on it. Speaking of which..."

"I'm not sure, Hokage-sama. One the one hand, they've got a hell of a lot more raw talent than most teams- I mean, any one of them could have trounced me during my exam, but at the same time, they've only been active for about three months. If one of them passed and the others didn't, it could throw off the dynamic... At any rate, they'll be more than ready for the Kusa exams in another six months. I just hope they don't completely outmatch me at that point," Iruka laughed. "Hell, they can probably do that now, especially now Sasuke's sharingan evolved."

"I'll trust your judgement as their sensei, but I actually have a favour to ask. It would seem Hatake Kakashi has been acting rather oddly recently. I believe you would be the perfect candidate to help him deal with what's bothering him." Iruka nodded, confused. What would Kakashi of the Sharingan want with him?

OoOoO

"Naruto, I need to ask you something." Sakura announced as they sat in Ichiraku Ramen, courtesy of Naruto's wallet. The Uzumaki blinked at her in confusion, cheeks stuffed with noodles as he started his second bowl. Looking around, he nudged Sasuke and made a few frantic gestures. The dark-haired boy rolled his eyes before translating obligingly.

"What he means is: Sure thing, Sakura-chan. Just let me finish this bowl." he said, deadpan, Inner Sakura swooning at the fact 'her' Sasuke-kun had used the -chan suffix for her.

"What was the deal with that red chakra?" she began, seeing Naruto tense up. A long pause ensued, in which he and Sasuke had some kind of silent argument. Much staring and subtle gesturing was involved. _'They even talk to one another without actually speaking. No wonder those rumours are still flying around.'_

Naruto exhaled loudly, evidently having lost the battle of wills the boys were engaged in. "I'll tell you, Sakura-chan, but not here. We'll head over to the compound and talk there. Just... promise me you'll let me explain everything before you say anything," he said sadly, leaving a few bills on the counter and looking up at the confused face of Ayame. "Sorry, Ayame-chan, I'm not really that hungry. See you soon."

Sakura glanced at Sasuke, who was following their teammate out into the evening. "Let's get going, Sakura. You'll have your answer soon enough."

OoOoO

Rei was ready to greet the two genin members of the clan when they returned (because Naruto was as much a part of their family as anyone) but seeing the depressed look on Naruto-kun's face made her reconsider. Whenever Sasuke got that look, it was best to leave him alone until he felt a little better. None of the Uchibis could remember seeing _Naruto_ look like that before, though. When Sasuke and their other teammate turned up, though, she started to get suspicious, especially when they went into Sasuke's office and shut the doors.

She was most certainly not spying when she moved over to the door, pressing her ear against it. It was simply concern for her... friend. She stood in silence as Naruto began relating the story of the Yondaime fighting the Kyuubi, defeating it at the cost of his own life. When Naruto's voice began wavering and he explained the lies behind it, that the Kyuubi could not be killed, only sealed, the pieces started falling into place.

"...S-so the Yondaime had to seal the Kyuubi's chakra into a newborn. And the kid he chose... it was me. Please don't hate me, Sakura-chan. I-I..." Naruto concluded, at a loss for what to say. Sasuke stood silent to one side, eyes flicking over the kunoichi. Sakura's head was down, leaving the two of them unable to see her face.

"I'll understand if you want to ask Iruka-sensei for a transfer, but please don't tell anyone else about this. Jiji says it's an S-class secret and you could get in a lot of trouble-" Naruto babbled, before a distraught Rei burst into the room, wrapping her arms around Naruto and sobbing.

"N-Naruto!" she admonished, thumping his chest without much real force. "Don't you dare talk like that! Don't you dare act like you deserve any of this!" she snapped, eyes full of angry tears.

Naruto was stunned into silence, even more so when Sakura looked up at him, also crying before she pulled herself into the hug. "All this time, you've been keeping us all safe from the K-Kyuubi. And so many people treated you like dirt... I'm so sorry, Naruto!" she choked.

Naruto managed to give a small smile. "At least now you know why people think I'm a social pirahna," he commented, blinking as Sakura snorted despite her tears. "What?"

"I think you mean pariah, Naruto." she laughed, Rei managing to giggle at it before they fell back into an easier silence.

Sasuke attempted to continue looking aloof, watching three of the people he cared about cry like children.

The fact that his eyes were watering was just the result of the Mangekyou.

Nothing else.

OoOoO

Iruka walked into the darkened bar, immediately replacing himself as a tipsy Mitarashi Anko attempted to grab the 'new meat' in a headlock. Glancing around, he saw a mostly-recovered Asuma sitting next to Yuuhi Kurenai. Best to leave them alone, seeing as they were trying (and completely failing) to keep their ongoing relationship a secret.

Seeing a fuming Maito Gai approaching... on his hands, he was able to determine that his target was somewhere near the bar itself, and he smiled as he passed the taijutsu expert. The man had been a big help in preparing for the Jounin examination, even if he'd nearly killed Iruka dozens of times in the process.

Iruka ordered a glass of water as he sidled in beside an extremely inebriated Jounin, who had a mask covering most of his face and his hitae-ate slung low over his left eye. "I hear you've been looking for me, Kakashi-san," he offered pleasantly, taking a sip as he turned to the slumped over elite. "Can I ask wh- whoa!" he cried, flinching away from a sudden backhand.

"Not 'nough that you've taken my team away," the Hatake slurred, stumbling to his feet. "Now you're actin' like nothin's wrong. Now come over here so's I c'n beat your ass." he continued. It would have been a lot more threatening if he was capable of standing up straight. As it was, Iruka narrowed his eyes and passed a few bills over to the bartender. He was hoping to get this over with without damage, but he wasn't an idiot.

"I think we should settle this somwhere a little less crowded, don't you?" he hedged, moving back towards the door, ready to dodge if necessary. The silver-haired man blinked in confusion, as though he'd forgotten he was in a public place to begin with. _'Then again," _Iruka mused, seeing the bottles accumulated on the bar. _"It's probably a miracle he's still conscious."_

"Be at training ground seven in ten minutes. I'll prove I'm right..." Kakashi slurred, stumbling past Iruka and out the door as the patrons of the bar stared in shock. The awkward silence was broken by Anko, summing up the thoughts of all present.

"Holy fucking shit."

OoOoO

"You sure you want to do this, Iruka?" Asuma asked for the third time, as they stood a few yards away from Kakashi, who was by now at least able to stand upright. "I mean, he'll realise how ridiculous this is if we let him sober up a little-" he began, before Iruka silenced him with a raised hand.

"He needs to get this out of his system or it'll fester. The last thing we want is someone like him going crazy- any more than we need to be in our line of work. Plus, I'd rather have to fight him drunk than sober," Iruka smiled, trying to lighten the mood as he glanced at the crowd forming around them. "Do all these people need to be here?"

Kurenai walked up to them, eyebrows raised. "Iruka-san, you basically agreed to fight _Hatake Kakashi. _I'd be surprised if they didn't try to see it." she commented, looking at the betting slips exchanging hands.

Iruka sighed and walked up to Kakashi, holding out the Seal of Confrontation. The crowd held their breath for the long silence before Kakashi responded. This was no joke. This was a full-on, no-holds-barred fight for the honour of both combatants, lest they be eternally shamed. At least, if you believed Anko.

Asuma, seeing that neither was going to back down, stood between them, ready to step in if things went too far. "I guess, as I am apparently the only reasonable adult present, that I will be keeping track of the fight. Just try not to kill each other," he sighed, hand raised. "Ready?"

_"Go!"_

_..._

I didn't want this to get too out of hand, so I'm saving the actual fight for next chapter. Please don't get mad!

Anyway, see you guys next time!


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